Why did they always have to beg? Although it didn’t make Savran Has’ job more difficult, it did make it more awkward than they were willing to tolerate. With a sigh, the athletically-built Shani reached loosed a vibrosword from one of two scabbards secured horizontally to the small of their back. The weapon sang with a metallic ring that sent the human man into a pathetic fit of sobbing and incoherent pleading. He’d given Savi what they needed, the coordinates and time of a drug exchange happening in downtown Korda. Now, it was his time to die.
“Look, we all have an expiration date,” the Shani began, speaking in a blasé tone. “Yours has come. The least you could do to make this easier on both of us is to die with some self-respect.”
But that would be too easy and this job was never easy. Savi would at least do the man the honor of killing him quickly. The man crawled across the warehouse floor in a desperate attempt to rescue himself, but a badly broken leg and arm robbed him of any chances of achieving that goal.
A slender, black boot found its place on the man’s back, and one well-placed thrust of Savran’s vibrosword through the heart ended the man’s life. “Good riddance,” they muttered to themselves while sheathing their vibrosword. One of many benfits of the weapon was that the rapid oscillation of its blade cleaned it of any blood it spilled. Reaching to their belt, Savi pulled their datapad from its holster so they could review the details:
… DRUG SHIPMENT ARRIVING IN DOWNTOWN KORDA, IN THE ABANDONED SHIPPING YARD NEAR THE RUNDOWNS …
With all the talk of Arconans being some of the best of the Brotherhood, of its summit being one of the few beacons amongst a sea of druk, Savi expected their home planet to be less tarnished than other places touched by the polluting hand of organized crime. But Selen was no different than any other planet: it was in desperate need of a thorough disinfection, and Savran Has was just the person to do it.
-
They checked their wristlink for the time. The rendezvous was happening in less than an hour. They’d have to get moving if they wanted to make it in time. The Shani had a date with a bunch of druk-eating drug dealers, and they had no intention of being late.
Sagitta leaned back on her chair as she pulled up one of her boots. With a deep sigh, she ran her fingers through her hair as she got up and started to braid it. The datapad rested on the desk with information about a small possible drug delivery. She already hit accept.
While braiding her hair, Sagitta froze, standing still in her room. Her facial expression showed no emotions. With a soft shudder, she shook it off.
Roll it off.
Made sure her rifle was ready she swung it to her back. Got her vibroblade and gauntlet on and at the ready. Grabbed her helmet and tucked it under her arm, she grabbed the datapad with her free hand as the Mirialan had made her way to Asani’s room. With a soft knock, the door opened.
Asani would know her sister enough by now that look on her face, she was about to hyperfocus and go somewhere, “I’m going to clear my mind,” she handed her sister the datapad, “Do you want to come with me?”
Cole had stopped bothering listening to the ebbs and flows of the underground. It was hard to think about such things these days. Before he would have known everything that was going on that was plausible for him to know. The Human would have been on every lead to pin down those who opposed, negotiate with those who feared and make friends. Friends were the rarest, but the most important.
But boredom upon the Voidbreaker was suffocating. The Citadel itself often was, despite how often the Farrow found himself there.
Missions, however, were a breath of fresh air. Even if it was just for a day or so, it was a distraction from everything. Even a few hours was better than nothing. A drug bust would do. A time had been found, and an ideal rendevous for a few who could take on the task while not being integral to any other operations within the clan.
Perfect.
There was no one tell. No preparations to make. Cole found himself sleeping in his armour some nights, and while this wasn’t one of them it didn’t take long to be geared up and on the way to the point. He’d be there early. That was fine. It’d give time to get a idea of civilian numbers, if there was any unrest or guards on the operation patrolling so far out. Maybe he could glean information from one, though that would be unnecessarily risky.
Still, he’d never liked the drug businesses that ran. The only reason his family had allowed them was purely due to how profitable it was. Even then, if it became to rife and started negatively affecting too many people they shut it down. There was no one to buy their goods if they were too busy staring into nothing. It felt good to know he was still following a norm, if somewhat bittersweet.
Asani hearing a knock on her door sighed, who could be asking for things at this time? She had been reading a few different things on plant care. Setting her things aside she stretched and made her way over. Answering the door with a mutter “I better not have to clean up the droid again for the hundredth time…” she looked up to find her sister in full gear staring down at her. “I’m going to clear my mind” she heard her begin, being given a datapad, looking it over it seemed easy enough for them to handle on their own. “Do you want to come with me?” her sister continued.
Letting out a chuckle she nodded “Sure gimme a minute I’ll be out quick” she commented. Dashing into the confines of her room gearing up in full armor and dashing back out. She loved getting into trouble, that much was certain. It wasn’t unusual for them to head out yet it was a surprise to have Sagitta ask, maybe her sister really did just need to clear her head. “Why pick this one?” she asked, handing the datapad back to her sibling after a quick leap onto her shoulders. She still refused to walk beside anyone if she could help it.
Sagitta smiled at her sister. Of course, she wasn’t going to turn it down. She dashed out as fast as she dashed back in, now wearing the Mandalorian armor. Waited for the usual thump of her shoulder, Sagitta set the datapad down after she sent a quick message to Clan Armis that they were heading out on an operation and which operation. Sagitta tilted her head while her arms raised so she can put on the helmet and was careful with Asani sitting on her. She had gotten used to being able to put it on and off while her sister sat on her shoulders, “Should be pretty simple, five to maybe ten at the most.” Her voice was slowly switching over to the hyperfocus one, rather monotone and less energetic/free-spirited. It took awhile but after years, when that helmet was put on, she was conditioned to be ready. She grasped the handles of the speeder bike and started to push it out of the ship. She heard enough whining from her family about turning it on on the inside cause it was too ‘loud’.
“Wouldn’t hurt to take some down, hmm?” Sagitta smiled behind the helmet. Once the bike was at an acceptable distance from the ship, she hopped on and kicked it on.
They left the bike back a while ways, they didn’t want to be discovered. Both of them moved silently and quietly. Checked all angles. “This is the perfect spot…” Sagitta to her sister through their shared comm link and frowned behind her helmet at the same time. Frackin’ abandoned shipping yard. This might make things hard but she’ll try. Squatted down, she nodded towards her sister and pointed downwards. “I think this is a good spot. If I cannot snipe, we can quickly get down from there.” Slid her rifle off of her shoulders as she lay down on the ground on her belly. The shoulder stock pressed up against her shoulder and her hand at the trigger. She turned off the safety, and together, they waited.
If the sudden movement hadn’t drawn Cole’s eyes, the distant whispers did.
Farrow had come early. Almost obnoxiously so, but his preparedness was to assure that getting in position wouldn’t be at risk, or something that he had reduced options in because of leaving it so close that there’d be a permiter set up. So the Human was in a shipping crate. The doors were already swung open and locked there, making for a ideal vantage that wasn’t too high above ground while still having a good amount of cover. The sniper rifle was set up on it’s tri-pod, the stock pressed against his shoulder despite his sudden distraction.
A quick sweep revealed the source of the noise.
A.. Kushiban and a Mirilan. Odd pair. The Mirilan had a rifle, the other was scanning the area. They were either guards, or more likely they heard of the hit as well.
The fact the time and place of this meeting was known to more than one faction was of concern. It could be a trap. Cole gritted his teeth, glancing around as if a trap would suddenly be visible before forcing himself to relax. Whatever they were, he could deal with them if they came to be an issue.
Not that the drug dealers wouldn’t. The Mirilan was too loud. Despite being laid down, she was too close to the edge, almost seeming to lean over it. All it’d take is a glance from someone with working eyes and she’d be spotted. He.. lost track of the other one, but if they were a pair how much that mattered would depend on how much of a survival instinct the Kushiban had.
“The tense silence that lingered within the old shipping yard gave way to the mechanical whirr of distant speeder bikes. Rapidly approaching from the west, the headlights of more than a dozen bikes created a wall of blinding light that pierced the night sky and shone clear across the courtyard. Most of them turned their bikes off but a few left their lights on to illuminate the area where they’d be conducting business.
Two figures in particular took the center stage. One was a pallid Human man dressed in a dusty overcoat and gray suit, the other was a copper-skinned Kel Dor that looked like he lived in the gym, wearing a black tanktop that left his heavily tattood arms exposed. Both men were accompanied by a dozen or so people on each side of them, who eyed each other while they waited for their respective leaders to speak.
The Kel Dor spoke first. "Took you long enough,” he said in a gravely voice, “We have to keep moving product to meet the demands of our customers. You know the motto–”
The Human interrupted with a dismissive wave. “Yes, yes, money comes first. I’m aware of your little catchphrase,” he said with a scoff, running a hand through his hair. “Truth be told, my employer was a little hesitant to arrange this meeting. After the death of your last distributor, he’s beginning to think that this problem of yours is beyond your ability to fix.”
“I already told you that I have it taken care of,” the Kel Dor cut in. “Any frakker stupid enough to interfere with Bleeding Streets business has to answer to Vom Ookri personally.” He pointed at himself with his thumb before cracking his knuckles a few times. The impassioned statement earned a few cheers from the group behind him, but the Kel Dor silenced that by rising a clenched fist.
“Let’s hope so. My employer doesn’t like to repeat himself,” the human man continued, “Now, I trust that you’ve brought the payment in full?”
“Of course. Boys, bring the man what he’s owed.”“
Just arriving on the scene, Savran Has sucked her teeth in disappointment. It had taken them longer than they anticipated to get to the rendezvous point. Next time, they wouldn’t take so long to extract information from their mark. Entering the shipping yard from the northeast, they used the Force to manipulate the ambient light around them, vanishing from view right after they tucked themselves behind a broken down hover-cruiser.
There were more mooks gathered here then they’d expected, but not nearly enough to make them uncomfortable. They’d come out on top against worse odds, but they still needed to play it smart if they wanted to make this one short and sweet. Things seldom went that easily, though, and this time was no different. Savran placed a hand on the side of the cruiser to get a better look at the group but when they did, they learned very quickly that the kriffing thing still had enough juice to set off its alarm.
Kark.
To make matters worse, Savi picked up on the presence of someone else through the Force, and looked to their left to see a Kushiban hiding atop a shipping container. Who the frakk was that and what were they doing here? It was a question they’d have to find the answer to later because they had bigger problems.
Vom Ookri, the swollen leader of Bleeding Streets and frequent target of Savran’s personal brand of vigilante justice, snarched his blaster from his belt. “What the druk was that?” he asked, practically snarling the words while gesturing for two of his subordinates to go check it out.
The human shook his head. “You were followed?” he asked in a biting tone, “I knew you and your cronies were amateurs.”
“What makes you so sure that you weren’t the one who was followed, you frakking sleemo?” Vom fired back.
Sagitta’s muscles tensed when the roars of the engines arrived. Great. This was much more than the five or possibly ten that the datapad had mentioned. But it was okay. Sagitta and Asani had been through worse situations. Two beings appeared in the middle and they must be the macho guys. Sagitta had to fight so hard not to roll her eyes because she was at work. Not long after the two targets were heading to investigate something, her brows furrowed behind the helmet.
The Mandalorian exhaled slowly and used the Force to help her sense and there’s someone there but she can’t see them. Asani, 11 o’ clock, someone is hiding there, I can’t see them. Should I go ahead and shoot the two di'kutla? Do we have enough information?‘ Calm and cool as a steeled she barely moved as she waited for her sister’s response.
Cole didn’t hesitate once they were distracted. They wouldn’t notice him straight away from this position due to everyone looking to whatever caused a disturbance across the building. Well, hopefully. Itd give a chance for a second shot without suppressive return fire.
The Human would be an ideal shot to disable, but at best he’d be able to take a head shot at that one so best to leave him. So Cole shifted into position properly with the sniper, and let loose a shot at the back of Vom’s head.
If he could take out the leader, itd remove any chance of organisation among Vom’s lackeys at least.
First shot.
Every muscles on her body was tight, ‘Who the frack’ Only Asani would get that since their telepathy was still strong. ‘I’m going ahead. Let’s go. We’ll have to hope the other shooter is not hostile.’ With that, she knew what her job was. She doesn’t know who was trying to hide over there but might as well, with a slow breath, one of the men lined up in her sight and she fired the second shot.
“Remember, Always go for the kill.” she commented to her sister, their telepathic link was available and thankfully quite strong at such a short distance from one another. “We hide, keep our distance.” she continued clearly indicating that they should be careful with their approach. If they were going to do this, it was best they stay at a distance, running was always an option they had. “Hope our friend wont kill us” she finished, who ever the mystery person was, Asani hoped that even if they had been spotted they wouldn’t become a target. She was searching for easy targets now, how many and which way they might run in order to best predict where to assist her sisters shots.
The first shot rang out and likely would have left a mangled hole in Vom Ookri’s head if it had met its mark, but it didn’t. Instead, the hulking Kel Dor ducked to the side just in time for the shot to graze his cheek. That was going to leave a nasty scar. Vom kriffing hated scars. He whirled around with surprising agility and pinpointed exactly where the shot came from, pointing for the others to see while they all scattered for cover. In the process of moving to take cover behind the nearby crate, Vom fired a shot into the container door that the first shot came from.
Then, shot rang out. It got one of his men, who hit the ground with a muffled thud. The human smuggler dipped ducked low and took cover next to Vom. “We’re under attack! Whoever it is, kill them!” the man shouted.
Things had escalated faster than Savi anticipated. Two shots rang out in rapid succession, the first barely missing Vom and the second ending one of the Bleeding Streets thugs before he had a chance to react. Friendlies? Didn’t matter right now because they had bigger problems. Although the first of the two druk-heads that approached their position to check out the cruiser alarm that was still going off had fallen to a sniper shot, the second was still headed in that direction. Savran inhaled sharply, the sudden influx of cool air tempering the conflagration that roared to life within them.
Their Force cloak dissipated, revealing a lithe feminine figure dressed in form fitting Equite robes designed to camouflage them with the shadows of the night. Reaching behind their back to draw two jet-black vibroswords, Savi struck like a coiled viper when the mook stepped too far into their den. The last thing thug saw was the Shani’s slitted amber eyes before a rapid flurry of blades sent them ended their tenure with the Bleeding Streets. Ironic name. The duracrete ground would taste plenty of blood tonight.
The Force practically screamed at them to move, and Savi heeded its warning by ducking back behind the cruiser before a blaster bolt sailed in their direction. They popped up again immediately afterward to hurl their vibrodagger toward the assailant, but the rest of the group managed to open the large door to the warehouse at 12 o'clock in just enough time for the thug in question to duck behind it. The others followed suit. Savi sucked their teeth before taking cover again.
“I’m sure distance is now moot, Asani,” Sagitta smirked behind her helmet as she was able to snipe another while they ran to the crate but missed the second one. At that time, the something she was sensing had finally shown themselves. “I think it’s time for us to go down and bring the battle to us, hmm?” She said as she flicked the safety of the rifle on and jumped down onto the ground. “Well, let’s go!” On her right hand, she activated her knuckle-plate vibroblade as she ran and focused the force on her feet, and jump easily into the air and landed onto the crate where there were now 5 mooks at.
Cole stayed low in the shipping crate. He’d be a hard target to hit in this position, laid down and at an angle. So the Human stayed put.
Mostly. He did shift forward to toss a grenade, shifting back into place as he expected it to blow. And… nothing happened? It was a live grenade. Why hadn’t it-
Well kriff.
He grit his teeth, glaring down the scope and preparing to shoot Vom in the head the next time the schutta popped his head up.
“Why do I let you drag me into these kinds of messes?” Asani asked, not leaping with her sister but deciding providing cover fire was the better of the two options. “You’re going to get shot again.” she commented at her sibling. Taking every opportunity to provide any and all cover fire. She realized then she was doing less aiming cover fire and more keeping her sister from dying fire.
She noticed something tossed from the position her sister had previously indicated, she spotted a human male. And was that a grenade?!
“Gita you’re going to resist every urge to head to the spot our friends at until I say so, he thinks its funny to throw explosives” she informed her sister of the danger and hopefully that would be enough to keep her safe. But she could use this to their advantage.
Cole rolled his eyes to himself. It wasn’t for fun. Had she not seen the amount of people they were facing?
When she jumped down, a stray shot tore through the air in her direction. Lucky for her, though, whoever fired it hadn’t expected the Mirialan woman to move as swiftly as she had. The shot sailed by harmlessly, though, maybe a little too close for comfort.
Things were moving quickly, and the hectic pace of the re-up turned firefight made Savran’s heart race with excitement. Quickened breaths that ended in forced, sharp exhales rang out even above the sound of blaster fire. The Shani breathed heavily not because they were tired, far from it, but because it was the quickest way to get more oxygen to their muscles. The mercenary and part-time vigilante known in some circles as Tekuani specialized in channeling all the excitement and fury of a good battle into devastatingly precise attacks, like sharpening a block of metal into a scalpel.
Savi saw their opportunity to strike when a Mirialan woman jumped down from the shipping container where the Kushiban was and narrowly avoided a distant blaster shot. With the group of six thugs’ attention squarely on Sagitta after she appeared above them, none of them noticed Savran step from behind the blaring cruiser. Throwing a punch from the distance they were from the group likely seemed odd to anyone who noticed what Savi was doing, but it would all become clear when a pulse of telekinetic force exploded from her fist and traveled through the air under the guise of a subtle distortion of the light that surrounded it.
Five bodies slammed against the metal container and the moving crane to the left of it, and five of them stopped moving. That left only one who was lucky enough to be outside of the attack’s direct path. What he didn’t avoid, though, was the after-effects of being that close to the attack, which left the man keeling over, dazed from the blast.
“You joined!” Sagitta snapped at her sister as she jumped down while yelling, “I can handle being shot!”
Which was not a lie. Then she paused for a moment as four of the men went down and were killed, leaving a fifth one. ‘Keep an eye out, the other one is a Force User,’ warned Sagitta. Her body tensed at knowing about the live grenade was thrown and didn’t go off. Was it a dud? Or delayed? Frack. Frack.
Frack
She needed to move fast. She hated explosives. Wasted no time, she turned on her knuckle-brace vibroblade and sliced the stunned mook’s neck. They were unpredictable as it was obvious when the one they threw didn’t go off. Unless it had a timer. That explosive needed to be taken care of. With that, she looked around the crate, saw the grenade, took aim, and fired.
Nothing happened. She slammed her blaster against the crate out of anger.
“Frack! Asani! Go!”
Cole had missed his first chance to shoot Vom. The schutta had barely peered and the shot richocheted off of the crate behind where his head had been.
He didn’t miss the second time.
The mercanary was breathing slowly, forcing himself to be calm, ignoring the crossing blaster fire and screams and watching the spot where Vom’s head would next have to appear.
A flicker of movement, the trigger was pulled.
And Vom took a blaster shot to the temple.
And so, the criminal career of Vom Ookri was cut short. Who would use his lifetime supply of preworkout now? Who would use his favorite mirror to take post gym selfies to show off the pump™️?
The man’s head exploded into a cloud of pink mist and viscera, and those engaged in the firefight definitely heard the human smuggler squeal when most of it landed on him.
“You handle being shot as well as you handle scratches” she corrected her sister. It also proved to be why Asani was providing cover fire. Seeing her sister jump, and watching her blaster jam she was glad she had decided to come along, she hated to think what would’ve happened had she decided not to join this time.
“Im going!” she replied shooting toward the grenade, missing and growling in frustration she decided maybe the nearest goon she could set eyes on would be a better target. She managed to catch sight of a few of them running around and hiding. They certainly made better targets. It seemed someone else had the same idea as she heard a squeal and saw what once was Vom Ookri. “Lets not leave him without company” taking aim she fired hoping her mark didn’t move so much as to make her miss, they slid their head out, a mistake that she ensure they wouldn’t make again.
Bodies were dropping like flies. The remaining members of Bleeding Streets were rapidly dwindling in numbers and morale. Stray voices rang out from across the courtyard as the combat continued.
“They killed the boss!”
“What the hell are we going to do now?”
“I’m getting out of here!”
And that’s exactly what they started to do. Although one or two of them remained in their positions to provide cover for their fellow gang members, the remaining members of the Bleeding Streets began to clear out, heading down the northwest passage between the massive shipping containers.
When the human smuggler saw that the thugs were beginning to fly, he raised his voice in protest. “Don’t just leave me here to die, you idiots! Do you know how big of a mistake you’re making?”
Once Sagitta killed the last gang member amongst the group that Savran attacked using their telekinesis, they darted from behind the hovercruiser to the shipping container where she was standing. As the Shani crossed the path, she sensed through the Force that danger was headed her way, but the Force was uncharacteristically silent on where that danger was coming from. This resulted in them taking a stray blaster shot to the right shoulder before they finally made it to the crate, which they pressed their back against before sliding down into cover.
Luckily, the armorweave interwoven into their robes took the brunt of the shot, leaving them with a nasty bruise and some contact burns on the skin. They looked over to Sagitta to examine her with a scrutinizing gaze. “Nice kill,” they said, “I think they’re trying to get away.”
Cole heard a yell from the Mirilan that.. she got the runners. There was six of them. With a live grenade in the middle of their path.
The Mercanary grumbled to himself, aiming down on the grenade. He struck it, and with a dying scream from the person closest to it, the grenade was at least discharged.
Only one dead. Disappointing. But at least the majority of the pack were injured, even if they were moving out of sight. Speaking of…
Cole shifted to his knees, pulling the gun with him and slinging it over his shoulder. It was a risk, but there was still one major target as well as stragglers all leaving line of sight. He drew his other blaster, a medium range weapon, and began to climb out of the crate.
He made it to the floor with little trouble.
“Geez, I haven’t noticed,” Sagitta smirked, her voice having amusement under her helmet. “Reckon I should go and do something about that,” She nodded at Savi.
Ka-boom
Sagitta scoffed.
That explosion stopped her from having fun in the hunt. She’ll just have to yell at that human for thinking about throwing explosives. What was wrong with that person? Being close to the human that was mad at his ‘friends’ leaving. Sagitta reached for and grabbed him. He simply shrugged off the jacket.
A switch had been flipped for a moment as she focused, the Force engulfed the male and she yanked her hand back and the male would be sent flying past her and into the crate behind her in hopes he would be knocked out. She hopes her sister would take out the others that are giving fire so she could give chase.
Asani found herself quite entertained by the scrambling of their enemy. “Heheheh see them run” She chuckled to herself. As she started to take a few random shots with out much focus, purely to spook the enemy or lead them in a specific direction. She made sure to count any and all of the men who had managed to cross her path. She was determined to find all of these few heads in the heat of the moment. She’d try her best to snipe a few of them while they were still scrambling for leadership, realizing they started to escape she started to get serious.
The grenade went off and rocked its immediate surroundings with a powerful concussive force. The gang member closest too it wasn't even able to get a scream in before he was blown to pieces. The other four suffered non-lethal injuries, but all fell to the ground with shrapnel in their legs, torsos, or arms.
"W-What the? Wait!" The human smuggler slammed into the crate with a loud *thud* followed by a sickening *crunch* from his arm impacting the steel container. He slumped to the bottom of the crate, conveniently next to where Savi was crouching. When he got a look at his arm, he screeched in horror to see the arm bent in the opposite direction at the elbow. "That's not how arms are supposed to go! NOOOOO"
One successful shot brought another one of the mooks low, killing him as he attempted to flee.
There were stragglers left alive. With their boss, though his cries were pathetic to say that was supposedly his title, captured there was no need to keep any others around. Already on the ground, Cole walked out where the grenade had exploder, rifle raised in case of any still standing he hadn’t seen.
No hostiles noted.
He put the barrel of his gun to the first ones head, they had barely begun to refocus their eyes after being concussed and knocked from their feet. With a single blast to the temple, they were dead.
He didn’t pay attention to the others present, assuming them neutral at worst for now. Cole simply continued walking between each of them and putting them down with the same impassive almost bored look in his expression.
After the last of the able-bodied criminals fled, Savran rose to their feet and reached up to remove the ski-mask and hood of their jumpsuit. Their wild mane of canary yellow, cinnamon, obsidian and a smattering of emerald feathers was tied in a messy ponytail that hung to the middle of their back. One could only imagine how that many feathers could fit into such a tight mask and hood, but they made it work … somehow.
In the light of one of the criminal’s hoverbikes illuminated the Shani’s saffron-colored skin as they snatched the human up by his collar. They had planned to lift him off his feet, but the little palnan kept squirming, so they opted to slam him against the metal crate.
Savi pressed their fist against the man’s collarbone to keep him jammed in place. Then, they leaned forward until their lips brushed the man’s ear: “You have until the count of three to tell me where the shipment is or I’m going to open you up and see which of your organs tastes the best.”
The words were delivered with a sultry tone that belied their menacing nature, delivered just low enough so that only he could hear them. Savi was absolutely delighted to see that their promise worked. The human’s skin assumed a cadaverous hue and he swallowed hard. “R-Right this way, ma'am,” he stammered, lifting his one good arm in the direction they needed to go.
“Good boy,” Savran said while letting him take the lead, “What’s your name, sweetie?”
“B-Brinath.”
Savi nodded while sheathing their weapons. “Thank you, Brinath. You’re being so helpful.”
Sagitta huffed as the rest of them ran. At least Asani got one. Then she watched as a familiar face was slaughtering the rest. Wait a minute! Wasn’t that- “Cole?” She questioned. Realizing she was wearing her helmet, she pulled it off, her purple hair fell down. “W-what are you doing here?”
Cole was just looking up after killing the last one, glancing over the field and ensuring no more threats. Other than the one that-
The Tekuani?
He was drawn away from that realisation by a familiar face revealing herself.
The mask slipped from the blank coldness to.. confusion. Then caution. His shoulders tensed. She wasn’t a threat, for now. Hopefully that would stay that way. And even if she wasn’t, the bounty hunter dragging off the other Human still alive in the building absolutely was.
“Sagitta.” He nodded to her, as if it were a normal day otherwise, “Same thing as you, it seems.”
Sagitta frowned as she looked over at Asani and then at the other one that dragged the human away, “Are you working with either of them?” She asked Cole, her thumb pointed at Savi and the human.
“No. DDF.” He raised an eyebrow, and then followed her gaze to look at the back of Savi. It was going to be interesting once she noticed him. It had been a while.
Cole continued, “One of them is a indepedant bounty hunter and the other is our target. And if I was working for him, these would be alive still.” He nudged one of the corpses with his foot to emphasise the point.
Thanks to her vantage point Asani noticed her sibling chatting with their “friend” from before who had tossed the grenade. Rolling her eyes she managed to make her way down not perhaps as silently as she would’ve liked. “What in a banthas rear end are you doing?” she questioned brow furrowed. This was if not competition then idle chit chatting they could save for some other time.
Sagitta looked at Cole a bit longer. “Hmm. Guess we’re after the same thing.” Then she can hear her sister as she smiled and looked down at Asani, “Talking to a…” She glanced toward Cole for a moment before looking back at Asani. “He helped me out once before.” Which was the truth. “Come on. Let’s not miss out on anything.” Sagitta quickly followed as she slipped the helmet back on and went to find Savi and the other human. When they were in the sights, “So! Do we get to hang him upside down on a rooftop!?” joked Sagitta. The poor bastard may not seen it as a joke however.
Cole let himself lag towards the back of the now trio approaching Savi. Not that he’d exactly go amiss.
He couldn’t help but think to himself that hanging someone upside was incredibly ineffective. They’d work out quickly whether you were bluffing or not. And there wasn’t much you could do to prove otherwise without killing them.
Hm. Oh well.
“H-Hey! You don’t have to push, you know,” said Brinath, the human smuggler. His protest earned a scoff from Savran, who raised their vibrosword to jab him in the back of the head with its pommel. “Quiet,” they commanded him with a biting tone, “When I need you to talk, I’ll tell you.”
As they walked across the courtyard and the other caught up, the Shani offered the Mirialan a reply without bothering to look back at her. “Why would I let him off so easily?” they asked before stopping in their tracks, grabbing a fistful of the human’s collar when they turned to face them. “And who are you, exactly? Just because you helped kill a few thugs doesn’t mean that I appreciate you interfering with my operation.”
They scanned the group with a cutting gaze, moving from the Mirialan to the Kushiban, then to–wait a kriffing second. They narrowed their eyes to ensure the darkness blanketing the area wasn’t playing tricks on them. No, they were sure of it.
“What are you doing here, Farrow? I thought you and the rest of your ilk were dead,” Savran asked with a scathing tone while pointing at the other human with their vibrosword.
“The rest are.” Cole commented, his jaw tensing as he met Savran’s gaze. Yep. Great. Wonderful. “I’d recommend leaving me with them when talking to others.”
There was an edge to his voice, the threat being laid between the words even though it wasn’t spoken aloud.
“Helped you out before?” she asked her sister with a skeptical tone, when had she ever deviated so much? She’d have to ask for details later. “Only if he talks” Asani continued her sisters rooftop joke. Noticing the tension between the two guests at their little gathering Asani spoke up “Look if you lovers are done serenading each other, dont you have someone to interrogate?” the Kushiban asked arms now crossed, staring at the human Savran had in their grip, not that youd be able to tell unless she moved her whole head, she was wearing armor after all.
Sagitta nodded. “Yea. A bit of a long story and a closed chapter, so to speak.” She said with a smile. When they arrived, the stranger was being rather hostile towards them and instinctively, she stood in front of Asani without thinking. It was a natural movement for her. “Your operation?” Sagitta started, “Last I checked when she and I accepted this operation, no one else was on it.”
Then the vibroblade was pointed to Cole as Sagitta brows furrowed behind the helmet.
How the karkin’ frakin’ nine hot kirffin’ sun hells did they always end up in some kind of trouble or danger?
“Can’t we ever have one smooth operation?” Sagitta muttered under her breath that only Asani could hear with her hearing.
“It seems there were multiple interested factions for removing this particular group.” Cole didn’t give the comment calling him and Savi lovers anymore attention than it deserved.
He barely even gave attention to the Vibroblade, focusing primarily on the Tekuani. Their response would be.. telling of how difficult the future was going to be.
as if it wasn’t difficult enough now
Savran raised a brow, which itself was made of tiny individual feathers of a dark brown hue. “Rather presumptious of you to assume that I’d be talking about you at all, Cole,” Savran fired back, seemingly unfazed by the veiled threat.
When Asani quipped about their relationship to the human mercenary, the Shani shot them a glance and a toothy grin that revealed the narrow, two inch fangs that hung beyond a set of pointed, hooklike teeth.
“He wishes he could.”
After that, Savi shrugged their shoulders before turning back toward the container. “You all can go back to wherever you’ve come from, though. I’ve got this handled.”
Well, at least they would be unlikely to talk. Probably. It wasn’t actually reassuring at all. Ah well.
Cole didn’t respond, hoping that Sagitta and.. her sister? Would actually reveal who they were working for in their response. His nose did wrinkle in disgust at Savi’s suggestion that he’d wish to lay with a known consumer of people. But other than bored icy glare he was otherwise maintaining, the Human just set to reloading his blaster. Just in case.
“Ouch, guess loverboy wasn’t up to scope” she commented seeing the toothy fanged grin Asani nodded, her expression unseen considering her helmet. “Well you may have it handled but we like the credits.” she commented checking her blaster in case it needed to be loaded, making sure to keep her position between the two larger creatures at about the same distance, she wasn’t a fan of either of them, granted she wasn’t a fan of anyone outside of her family, maybe. “But im not the lead today…” She looked at her sister wondering if she was willing to back from this situation or pursue it further.
Sagitta had to refrain from making a comment. Thank frack there was a helmet to hide the upcoming blush on her cheeks when Cole was called lover boy. Luckily, both of them misunderstood and thought Asani was talking about them. Then the whole loverboy wasn’t up to the scope.
He wasn’t that bad. Sagitta mentally mused to herself.
FOCUS.
“Oh no no no.” Sagitta shook her head, pink eyes glaring at Savi from behind the helmet. “We see our missions through and through. It would look bad for our group of people if we just… slither away you know.”
If Savran didn’t have more important things to attend to, they may have fired another quip at Cole in the hopes of erasing that pestilent look from his face. That they had even given him the freedom to speak and scowl as much as he had was an act of lenity seldom offered by the Tekuani. He should be grateful. But Savi knew better than to wait for an expression of thanks, and they couldn’t bring themselves to desire anything from the man other than his immediate removal from their presence. That way, they could continue their work unabated. The odds of that desire coming to fruition, though, were woefully slim. It seemed that Farrow and the two Mandalorians were intent on sticking around like a bad rash.
When the shorter of the two armored figures mentioned their fondness for credits, Savi had to raise a hand to their mouth to stifle a laugh.
“You’ve thrown in with a pair of common mercenaries, Cole?” they asked, their tone and expression a calculated display of mordant incredulity. “I heard that things had gone south for you since, well … you know. But this is just embarrassing.”
What was even more embarrassing was the shameless use of the snake pun that the other Mandalorian slipped into the conversation. The poorly conceived joke deserved no response, at all. They turned and shoved Brinath toward one of the shipping crates. “Open it,” Savi commanded.
The Human stumbled forward and barely lifted his hands in time to catch himself against the metal exterior. He produced a small ring of keys from his pocket and began fumbling with them while trying to find the correct one. The man’s hands shook so violently that it took him a full minute to insert the key and remove the padlock. Once it was open, Savran pushed him aside and into the nosy trio. Then, they grabbed one of the doors and pulled it open with a long creak.
-
Jackpot.
Only a sliver of light from the distance speeder bikes shone into the container but it was enough for Savran to make out rows upon rows of packaged material stacked to the very top of its metal interior. They produced their datapad from their belt and snapped a quick holophoto of the container’s contents. That should be enough to confirm the completion of their mission. Now, they just had to destroy all these narcotics.
Cole had had to resist a strong urge to roll his eyes at the speaking of his loving capabilities. Nonsense talk. He finished with the blaster while Savi spoke, jaw clenching.
He was aware of that shame.
The Human took a few long steadying breaths, quelling or at least attempting to quiet the sudden surge of rage at the Shani’s words. They were right. That didn’t make it better. The fact they felt they could keep speaking of his family was aggravating enough.
Still. Control. Despite the tension lacing through him he spoke with a scathing tone, gaze set on their back like a arx wolf circling a sand panther, “I just need proof of the job done. These two are unrelated to my job. Picts, maybe a sigil of who they worked for from a corpse. I’d recommend which ever of these becomes your next meal isn’t one of the important ones. I’m sure you don’t want your presence here too obvious.”
“Don’t misunderstand our position, credits are nice but the satisfaction of a job done is why we persist, considering the importance of this job as well. That and the scale of this work.” Asani spoke, she was making snake puns now too. But made it a point to let their snake like friend know they were maybe just a bit more than hired guns, morally at least.
At the mention of a body becoming a meal Asani seemed to tense up slightly, tail flicking just a bit. “Id rather be unaware of your…compatriots dietary habits.” she commented at Cole. It was clear the two knew each other at the very least.
Sagitta rose an eyebrow behind the helmet as the accusation of them being mercenaries were made by them. No matter. As long they didn’t know who they were, it was probably for the best. One thing she did notice was Cole taking a while to respond. She stood by the entrance in case the ones that managed to get away were going to bring in a bigger group. It would suck to be locked in here. She tilted her head and nudged Asani. When she gets Asani’s attention, she used telepathy for her and her only. ‘Take pictures. Be careful.’
“Yes. I mean I’m sure Brinath here isn’t the head boss of the entire thing. We would need him alive to get more information about whom he works for. Can’t just always eradicate the lowly ones and never get to the head boss. Would loved the other dude too but someone executed him. ”
“Not my compatriot.” Cole responded shortly, before side glancing Sagitta. It was brief, as he was still maintaining sights on Savi, “And he was just a distrubtor. At best, he could have told us this one’s name if he’d have died. Unless the one leading these operations is a complete fool.”
Although Savran was no longer looking at him, they kept their attention divided between Cole and the narcotics cache lying before them. Hints of smoldering wood hit their noise and tongue–the scent of paranoia. Cole’s thoughts revealed that his attention was divided between multiple fronts. The only one that interested Savi was his anticipation of an attack from either more thugs, themselves, or the shorter Mandalorian. But not the taller, mouthy one. How curious.
“I’m flattered that you’ve considered my dining habits, darling, but I already ate,” Savi noted while grabbing Brinath by the back of the neck again. The man flinched away from the Shani’s touch but was unable to free himself due to their superior strength. “If you need to know who they worked for, I’m sure this one can tell us. A shipment this big means that the boss must be a major player in the local drug scene. Isn’t that right, Brinath?”
They waited for a response but when the man averted his gaze, Savran dug their tapered nails into his neck to encourage him to talk.
The Human hissed in pain and begrudgingly began to speak. “If I tell you that, I’m as good as dead.”
Savi scoffed. The fool hadn’t realized that he was dead, anyway. They had intended to tell him just that but decided against it when the Mandalorians started speaking. More kriffing puns. What was up with these two and puns? They weren’t even creative ones. Savi noticed a slight increase in the rigidity of the shorter Mandalorians’ posture and the way she hesitated when addressing Cole’s comment about them eating people. They were clear signs of her discomfort, which Savi took note of while letting their eyes linger on Asani for a few, long moments. Two for two. They were so easy to rile up.
The kushiban hearing her sister comment in her head made no indication of it, preferring to choose stealth over being obvious with her intentions. “If they’re not your compatriot do tell what is the clearly tense history we’re witnessing here?” Asani asked Cole, she was walking toward him but then started walking toward what seemed to be the shipment. Looking over to Savran then she began again “or perhaps you’d like to fill us in?” she asked, visor never truly allowing her to show emotion, her tone indicated curiosity more than malicious intent.
“I mean I am interested in seeing the company my sister keeps.” she continued, clearly the information came from a place of protective feelings toward her younger sibling more than genuine curiosity. Approaching their unfortunate prisoner just enough to be out of kicking distance she inspected him for a moment “as for you, If you don’t tell us, you’ll be dead anyway.” she commented, blaster pointed at them, likely at their head, her height wasn’t much of an indication of where she might be pointing so it seemed more like a general threat that a pinpointed one. “The choice is yours, at least with us you’ve got a higher percentage of survival.”
She moved again, turning completely to look toward the shipment for a moment, tail swishing back and forth, she then proceeded to walk back toward her sister, hopping back onto her shoulder. “How much of a percentage is up to you”. She hoped it would make their ‘friend’ a bit more talkative.
“Usually a tense history would make it obvious that we aren’t compatriots. I care little for gossiping about people’s company, either way.” Cole’s tone had flattened out, responding more in hopes of getting the damn Kushiban to stop commenting on him than anything else. Her threat wasn’t exactly effective when she immediately turned away after making it. At best it was a suggestion.
A suggestion that entirely relied on the Tekunai giving up their prey, which none of them could guarantee.
His focus returned to Brinath, icy eyes meeting the fearful but still defiant one’s of their prisoner. Cole didn’t bother to approach or make a scene, but he spoke with a tone devoid of empathy, “You will talk. You must know we have ways of doing that.”
He let the words hang in however long the quiet would last after such a statement.
Sagitta blinked behind the helmet when they were talking about… this being’s dining habits? Now she was curious but she knew better. That was something for her to check when she gets back home. And forget to do that Seems like the three of them were doing enough talking for the human so she leaned back and paid attention to her surroundings while waiting to see if they can get the human to talk.
Savran tilted their head at the Kushiban’s queries. “Quite the inquisitive one, aren’t you?” they asked, “Especially for someone who has no prior working relationship with Cole.”
She was quite the presumptuous one indeed if they thought they were owed that information, which is how their tone made it seem. Savi cracked a grin while gesturing at themselves and gold with a slender, tattooed finger. “Information isn’t given freely in our line of work. You’ll have to offer me something good if you want any information about my history. And his history is his own to tell.”
Although Savi hadn’t given him an outright promise, they had no intention of sharing details of Cole’s past with anyone, especially not a pair of total strangers.
-
“Brinath flinched away from the blaster pointed at his head, but maintained his silence despite the threat. It seemed the man had mustered up a bit more resolve now that combat had ended. When the Kushiban mentioned his death already being a surety, he spat on the ground. "Better you than what my boss would do to me if I rolled,” he fired back, words venomous. “Eat shit.
When Cole approached and tried his hand at intimidating the man, he managed to break the veneer of defiant confidence he wore when speaking with Asani. The man averted his gaze and tightened his lips, but he still didn’t budge. "I can’t do that, man..”“
Cole let out a soft laugh, though it was far from a mirthful noise. The smile that remained after was not dissimlar to the one Savi often bore.
“But you will. You can’t go back to your master after all.” He took his gaze off of Brinath, looking at Savi, “What facilities do you have?” He considered asking it to the group, but he thoroughly doubted that either of the other two would even consider the methods him and Savi would utilise.
Sagitta certainly wouldn’t. It was a painful similarlity to another time. This time he had nothing to lose from someone seeing that side of the job at least.
“Some people enjoy tension between them.” She replied to Cole, she might’ve had experience dealing with people who had intense tension between them but it seemed between these two, it was not the same type of tension. If they had sexual or hateful tension between each other it really wasn’t her concern, it seemed the later though.
“If you cant give anything freely and I have no desire to barter we’re at an impasse. My interest is with him,” she pointed at Cole moving her head toward his direction tail pointing as well. “But then again, I guess I can just figure him out in my own” she stated, either shed pester him or find out about him some other way. “If our friend over there isnt being useful, Ill shoot him. We can throw him somewhere and let him become fertilizer, be doing the galaxy favors, he’d at least be worth more and be useful.” she commented about Brinath. Either he became useful or she would make him a useful part of the ecosystem
Savran lifted their gaze from their captive to Cole. “Well, besides the standard use of physical torture, I can reach into his mind and amplify his worst fears,” they said, speaking in a matter-of-fact manner. This was business as usual for them, after all. “I’m sure that would soften him up nicely and make him more receptive to our questions.”
The Shani felt the muscles of Brinath’s neck tense after they gave their suggestion.
That was a true statement if they ever heard one. Fleeting images of a certain Kessurian-Echani formed in their mind’s eye before Savi dismissed them. Now wasn’t the time for such ponderances.
As the Kushiban woman spoke, Savran was surprised and intrigued by the tone of ruthless candor they adopted when addressing the smuggler. They liked this one. And they supposed that she had a point; if Savi had to offer a bit of information to have a clearer picture of who they were dealing with, then so be it.
“I’m a private military contractor,” they began, preferring the more professional-sounding term instead of the typical “mercenary” moniker. It was a suitable means of distinguishing the quality of their work from the work of any two-dollar merc with a decent shot. “Cole and I crossed paths a few times in the past, during missions.”
That was all they would get, for now. Savran gestured to the two Mandalorians, though they kept their eyes trained on the Kushiban. “Tit-for-tat. Who are you?”
“And although I admire your willingness to put a hole in this palnan, I intend to keep him alive so I can use this small fish to catch a much bigger one.”
“So its more of an acquaintance encounter than anything else.“ she seemed satisfied with the answer. Whatever she might’ve been looking for she found her answer for. “Tit-for-tat, what you see is what you get.” she stated pointing up at her face or rather her helmet, Mandalorian style T visor plainly visible, her helmet seemed a bit modified to match her petite and unique body shape and appearance. “We get the job done.” she stated matter-of-factly, still resting upon her sister’s shoulders.
“My willingness to turn him into fertilizer increases with his growing uselessness. We might be better off looking for clues in his slower friends” she commented about the men who had been unable to out gun or out run the group.
Cole nodded to Savi’s suggestion. “That would work well with the facilities I have if you’re willing to share the job.”
His cool gaze turned back to the Kushiban, “Your willingness to kill the only reliable source of information is foolish. The others were part of his crew and maybe there’d be some value to them, but this one knows exactly what we want to know. If you want to gamble, leave us with him and go have fun chasing loose ends.”
Sagitta rolled her eyes at the trio and made her way towards the corner of the crate and checked her surroundings. All clear. Hmm. This was odd. Usually there would be something to kill them all, even their own ‘team member’ to make sure nothing was spilled. Hopped onto a shipping crate, she grabbed her sniper rifle and turned on the safety. Slung it over her shoulders, she checked her surroundings.
Hopped down, the Mandalorian Mirialan made her way over. She whistled at the three of them. “Whatever you guys decide, I say we make it quick. We’re out in the open, even I would be able to snipe in a location like this.”
Then she looked over at Asani before gently lowering her blaster, “We should leave the … interrogation up to them. Shooting first won’t work this time. Buir may have exposed us by training us to make sure we never talk but we do not have the means to do it ourselves. We can still stick with them obviously so we can be sure we get the information without our hands getting too dirty.”
“He’s clearly in need of proper motivation and preserving his own hide might just be the aggressive negotiation tactic he might respond best to.” the lagomorph took the moment to look at Cole, she stood a bit taller on her sisters shoulders. But soon they were moving, and giving the area a proper inspection, Sagitta let her know now that perhaps this was a debate best left for a different location. “I’m just trying to rile the guy up a bit. If he’s a coward he’ll budge, but you are the lead on this so I’ll follow along.” she seemed willing to listen to her sister and let her take the lead. “But if he doesn’t yap soon we’ll find a different way to go about this and finish our job.” Asanis focus seemed to return to finishing their task rather than troubling the rest of the odd group.
Savi shook their head, clearly displeased with the Kushiban’s non-answer. “I know a Mandalorian when I see one,” they replied in Mando'a, their lack of amusement evident in the flat tone with which they spoke. However, they were relieved to hear that Cole still had some sense. Why would they kill their most valuable asset? The one who, if … no, when, they forced to roll on whoever his boss was, would give them an even bigger score. And that meant more credits.
Savran shrugged their shoulders. “Sure. The faster we get this done, the faster I can get paid,” they said. Although they weren’t thrilled at the idea of sharing the job with these three, they liked the idea of finishing up here with as little difficulty as possible more.
They gave a nod of recognition to Sagitta, appreciating that she acknowledge that the interrogation was best left to them and Cole. “Good idea. Leave the advanced interrogation to us. We both have plenty of experience with it. You two can watch our six, and the drugs.”
Savran gestured to Cole next, then to one of the other empty containers. “Be a dear and open that up, will you?”
Cole raised an eyebrow, “We’re doing it here? They could bring reinfocements back easily enough. Best to move or destroy the stache and take him to a second location. Then we’d have more time to handle the interrogation, at least.”
He did not move toward the container.
“I never took you for such a worrier, Cole,” Savran said with a scoff before tightening their grip on Brinath’s collar. “Fine, lead the way. I figure you know this city better than I do.”
“Not worrying, planning. Not something you’ll see much more of I imagine.” Cole correct, before nodding and glancing to the other two.
“I’d suggest you two sort out your plans with the drugs.”
He did make a point of taking a few picts quickly, before putting the pict recorder away and looking to Savran, “It’s a decent walk, plenty of alley cover but he’ll need to be covered up.”
Sagitta had a reason to hate interrogation beside the fact of how they were raised. It just seemed… dark to her. Yet, she knew some people just have that ability to be capable of not caring they were harming another sentient being.
It was why it took Buir and her so long to repair their fragile thread.
Sagitta did not like how Savi talked to Cole but it wasn’t her concern or business for that matter.
Sagitta gave Cole a reassuring nod, “Of course.” Out of sight, Sagitta sighed, “Want to call the drugs in?” She looked over at Asani before she hopped up onto a container and slightly followed but still enough distant and looked around for anything.
Asani took Savrans clear discontent in stride, chuckling at their comment. She had in fact answered the question she was given, she was Mandalorian, that was all she needed to let others know after all. Her body type left little to the imagination when it came to how threatening she was, small and cute didn’t do much to inspire fear in others. She may as well enjoy herself and tease others. Hearing her sisters comment and feelign the movement she took a few photos of the shipment, making not to make it too obvious. Even if they were working seemingly together, she still preferred the privacy of simple snapshots.
“Your mission, your call, I’ll do it if you ask” She replied to her sisters question, a hint of humor in her voice. Even if Asani wasn’t a fan of interrogation, she wasn’t particularly feeling any kind of torn up about it either. She knew Gita felt differently on the other hand and felt like intimidation might’ve been better if only to spare her sister the worry over what may happen to Brinath.
“Who knows, maybe he’ll break easy and they wont have to do much.” she commented to her sister while still clinging to her shoulders, looking in the opposite direction her sister might be staring, best to be alert in case of any problems they might encounter. Or in case their prisoners friends decided to be bold.
“Don’t be so sure, Farrow,” Savran replied, “No one can be sure of what the Force has in store for any of us.”
Slitted eyes scanned their surroundings and the different paths leading away from the shipyard. “That can be arranged, one moment.”
Without missing a beat, Savran rammed their elbow into the side of Brinath’s head, causing the man to double over while clutching his temple.
“OOOOWW. WHAT THE FRAK WAS THAT FOR?!”
Savran blinked. They had intended to knock the man out. Well, it looked like he could take a harder hit than they expected. They didn’t say anything in response to his protests, instead opting to remove their cloak and throw it over him.
“Let’s go,” Savran said to call before looking back to the two Mandalorians. “Behave.”
“I appreciate the force used, but it would be more obvious carrying a blatantly unconcious person through the city than walking someone who’s complaining.” Cole commented, having watched Savran try and fail to knock Brinath out. For the best, really.
Still, once the other Human was covered, Cole began leading the way out of the warehouse, swinging his sniper rifle back over his shoulder. If they were attacked, it wouldn’t be as useful as his assault blaster anyway afterall. He made no comments of goodbye to the other two, just glancing to Sagitta before turning toward the most efficent exit.
Savran noticed the glance in the taller Mandalorian’s direction, though they didn’t say anything about it. At least, until they were out of ear shot.
“Your wandering eyes betray you, Farrow,” they said with a chuckle. If he bothered to look over to her, then he’d see the poodoo-eating grin on the femme’s face.
He in fact, did not bother to look over at her poodoo eating grin.
“Then it’s a good job I’m not trying to conceal anything in regards to that.” He commented plainly, glancing out of the doors before stepping out and back towards the alleys he had used to arrive at the facility originally.
“The way you don’t let your eyes linger on her for too long would suggest otherwise,” they said matter-of-factly, keeping their hand around the back of Brinath’s neck while they walked.
“Cole Farrow, lover boy. Who would’ve thought?”
Of course, Savi knew nothing about his relationship to the large Mandalorian and she didn’t truly care, either. But teasing Cole would make the trip go a bit faster.
Cole inhaled slowly, before letting out it out as a rather exagerated sigh. Of all the things the Tekuani could focus on, it was the fact he knew Sagitta.
“Is this really how you entertain yourself?”
Sagitta sighed at Asani as she grumbled while sending the coordinates for the Marshals to receive.
“They are giving us an hour before they come in. I explained a bit that we needed more time for more information. So an hour till Operation Cleanup. They won’t give us more.”
Sagitta laughed softly as she shook her head at Asani. “The way that human was reacting… I doubt it.” Right on cue, the human yelped and yelled at the snake woman for hitting him. Sagitta opened her arm to point that as a gesture to Asani as if saying ‘see’.
Before they went down the alley, she saw Cole looking at her as she gave him a nod. It was almost as if saying, ‘I got your back.’ They had only met once but he’s really helped her and didn’t undermine her. Even though they shared the same fear, he could’ve belittled her and he didn’t. How is it that a complete stranger gained so much trust from her?
Maybe her family wasn’t kidding when they constantly warned her not to always think of everyone as a friend. And that may shoot her in the back later.
Well. If he shoots at her then she can just kill him. Easy.
“Come on, let’s scout real quick before we meet up with them.” She said to Asani.
That wasn’t a no, and that’s all Savran needed to confirm their hunch. A self-satisfied smile appeared on their face before they replied to his question.
“There are lots of ways I entertain myself, though this sadly isn’t the time or place for any of them. You’re welcome to accompany sometime … if you’re not busy with the big one back there, that is.”
It didn’t take them long to reach their destination. A large, mostly nondescript building nestled amongst several others in a dimly lit area. Savran scanned their surroundings, but it seemed like there was no one in the area. Good. Leading Brinath and Cole around to the side door, they kicked it in and stepped aside to let Cole in first.
“You overestimate how desirable you are.”
He was silent for the rest of the trip. He didn’t exactly find her unattractive physically, but even for him whod knowingly slept with assassins, sleeping with someone he didn’t know the intent of was stupid. At least he knew whether or not those before wanted to kill him. With the Tekuni… there was too many questions.
Cole took his blaster out before stepping into the room, but it was clear so he stood down quickly enough.
“Clear.”
“Trust me baby, I don’t,”
Once they were inside the room, Savi closed and locked the door behind them. They left Brinath in Cole’s more-than-capable hands long enough to find the button for the lights, which flickered momentarily before steadying into a milky white glow. They grabbed an old, rusty chair and slammed down in the center of the room with an audible clang before grabbing Brinath and shoving him into it.
“Find some rope,” Savi said to Cole while removing their cloak from Brinath’s head.
The man shruggled against the Shani’s grip but to no avail. “You all are making a huge mistake,” he said. “This is going to come back to haunt you. Big time.”
Cole had already been on the case, and as Savi asked was already walking to start tying Brinath’s hands to the back legs of the chair, keeping them separate and forcing the palms to face out. He tied the ankles next, again to the chair legs. He had raised an eyebrow at Savi, before doing the job.
“Oh no. How worrisome.” Cole deadpanned, walking round the room. It was full of plenty of scrap, wires of various material and thickness. He didn’t have a knife on him, but it wasn’t like he was concerned about giving Brinath an infection. The interrogation wouldn’t last that long.
“Don’t worry about us, you should worry about yourself. What’s your leader’s name?”
“An hours enough time to burn it all sky high if you want.” she commented, hearing her sisters comment she sigh. There was yelp and she looked back at the man being hit by the snake woman. “If he knows what’s good for him he’ll break easily, cant imagine jaws over there has any kind of ability to hold back” she commented about Savran who definitely seemed likely to kill the man instead of torturing him.
“Wanna do a quick scout or be a little more nitty gritty? Seems like everyone booked it out of here. At most we’d be able to find some clues but anything useful is likely to have vanished or be…indisposed” she commented looking down at the bodies left. The kushiban wasn’t particularly phased by the carnage but considered maybe all of the bodies littered around might best be removed. Quickly.
“So how exactly do you know that man? He seemed too at ease with you for you to have known each other for a short period of time.” The older sibling questioned, she wanted to help her sister, or at least keep her safe from whatever or whoever that human was. If he had any foul plans with his sister, Asani wanted to be the first to make him one with the force.
Sagitta smiled behind the helmet, “Yea.” Her voice was slightly mused for a bit. “You can check the bodies, I’ll scout real quick okay? Would be quicker to get things done. After I scout, I can move the bodies into one place. So, if you don’t mind, please make of note where they all are.”
‘How did you know that man?’
Sagitta felt her face betrayed her. Thank frack for the helmet. It was suddenly warm. “He helped me out one night. I mean… really helped me out. I wasn’t in a good place.” She exhaled sharply, “it was storming, Asani. Not many strangers would help someone.” Her family would know about her severe stupid fear of storms. She gritted her teeth, she hated talking about her fear.
Then she did the shake dance. Shake it off.
“Okay! So now, I’m going to scout!”
Sagitta focused, deep inhale and ex- BUZZZZ
Distracted, a bumblebee came flying by as Sagitta ducked. She did not want to be stung. Well. It flew away and Sagitta sighed with relief.
Maybe she won’t use the Force today. She had used it already on the Human earlier when he tried to run from her. More was not needed.
Instead, the tall Mirialan started climbing the crates easily and started to look around.
Two. Fracking. Tookas. Her heart ramped up as her eyes widen. She started to do a little dance with her toes. HOW CUTE. SHE. MUST. ADOPT.
Wait. West. Okay. She finished scouting and quickly went back to looking west.
Asani took her sisters departure as a good sign to begin her own scouting adventure. With a shake of her head she hopped down slowly, using any metal bars as an easy and convenient way to traverse downward from the crates. Without too much fuss she managed to make it down maybe not as nimbly as she had hopped, managing to bump into the side of one of the crates as she was making her way down. No worse for wear she began rummaging through all of the bodies without making any fuss over the state of those who were now one with the force.
“Business as usual” she commented, finding very little of value in any of their persons, most carried weapons, and some merely the clothes on their back. This wasn’t anything particularly impressive by any means but it would have to do. It was during this search that she decided to try and figure out what it might be that her sister and that human shared. “He was friendly but not too friendly…” she mumbled to herself as she continued to check and even mark down the places all of the bodies lay in. “She said he helped, but I dont trust that it was without other motives in mind…” maybe she was being too protective of her sibling, she was an adult she could fend for herself.
Shaking her head she moved on to the next few bodies, finding something of value in them then, a comlink. This they could definitely use to their advantage. Standing tall and triumphant she decided she may as well check for anything else on this particular individual before reporting back to her sibling. Now she made sure to keep her ears intent and ready in case anything important or useful was said via their new comlink.
While the two sisters spoke amongst themselves, it didn't take long for the high-pitched chime rang from the comlink Asani found. If she decided to investigate, she'd see that the comlink wasn't encrypted, There was no name attached to the comlink code, though, but whoever it was sent an audio message to its owner.
Once the man’s hands were tied, Savran begin rubbing her knuckles in preparation for what was to come.
Meanwhile, Brinath scowled at Cole and spat on the ground.
CRACK
The first blow landed, with Savran landing a left hook across the man’s face. A dark red began to pool beneath the pale skin of his cheek, a bruise in the making.
“More where that came from, palnan,” Savi said, “Now, why don’t you make this easier on everyone involved and tell us what we want to know.”
Silence.
Another blow. And another. One punch to the other side of his face and another to the gut.
Savran shifted their gaze to Cole and gestured toward Brinath, signaling that it was his turn to get his hands dirty.
Once Savran had gotten into punching, Cole wandered off and scooped up a piece of metal. It was thin and the Human easily snapped it. He’d rather have gloves, mildly concerned for his own blood stream if he nicked himself on the corners with how rusted the piece was, but it was enough and a sharp enough edge to do what he needed to.
He forced Brinath to flatten his hand, not bothering to ask the questions again. He knew what they wanted.
Cole positioned the piece of metal to penetrate the flesh between Brinath’s thumb and index finger, into the midst of fleshy area there that contained a nerve cluster. He didn’t stab in fully straight away, careful to only apply enough pressure to be hitting the nerves. Beginning to tear at them, twisting it slightly to destroy those at the top and agitate the nerves ends below and make them react preemptively to the source of pain.
It was a small thing, but if he was supposed to be the one targetting physical pain he was going to do it right.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Brinath nearly spat, struggling against Cole’s grip when he forced him to flatten his hand.
Savran watched in silence as Cole pierced the man’s hand with the metal, seemingly unbothered by the sudden spike in the man’s volume.
The human smuggler kicked his head back, shouting an incoherent string of curses as he continued to struggle in place, though that only served to heighten the pain he felt. But surprisingly, he still didn’t budge.
“F-Fuck you two.”
Savi shook their head. “Looks like we’re going to have to try harder with this one.”
A quick search of the warehouse allowed the shani to locate several old rags lying around. After fetching a roll of medical tape from their medkit, they strolled back over to where Brinath was tied up.
“Open wide, palnan,” they said while tightly squeezing the lower half of his face in one hand, using the other to force his mouth open so they could stuff the rags down his throat. He struggled all he could, but it made no difference. Once the rags were in place, Savi quickly taped his mouth and nose shut.
“We’ll see how he does without air.”
“I wasn’t done-” Cole started, watching them go off and shrugging, shoving the rest of the spike through the nerve cluster before backing off to let them suffocate him.
He looked to the Shani, and then back at Brinath. Assumedly she wouldn’t actually kill him, so Cole wandered off to collect some various scraps and pieces for when Brinath could talk again.
Savran shot Cole a look when he began to protest, maintaining eye contact with him while holding their hand over Brinath’s mouth and nose. They didn’t have to because of the tape but they knew he would suffer more while thrashing against their grip. And thrash he did.
“I think I caught him on an exhale,” Savi commented matter-of-factly. If Cole had bothered to keep count like they did, he’d know that it took only ten seconds for the man to start writhing in his chair, becoming more spastic with each second that felt short to them but likely felt agonizingly long to him as his blood filled with carbon dioxide. Savran let another ten seconds pass, for a total of twenty, before removing the tape from his mouth.
Brinath gasped loudly when the tape was removed, kicking his head back to take as large a breath as he could. But Savi had no intention of letting him savor the moment. Before he was halfway through his breath, the shani drilled him in the stomach with a punch to rob him of any air he’d inhaled before reapplying the tape.
They looked over to Cole again. “How long do you think he’ll last?”
Cole glanced over, looking at the redness already invading the whites of Brinath’s eyes.
“Thirteen.”
He picked up a few more bits before returning toward the middle of the room, placing them on the floor before looking the man over. His hand was bleeding heavily around where the spike had been shoved through, but he’d be able to get used to it amidst the other stresses. Cole twisted it before he pulled it back out and let it drop to the floor.
He didn’t waste the few seconds he had though, starting the slow process of carefully flaying the man’s hand, starting at the wrist, digging in with the metal.. make shift shiv to get below a few layers of the skin but not deep and start peeling.
Upon hearing the comlinks message and seeing it light up Asani knew this may be trouble, it was something she needed to report to her sister quickly, as it could also be something they could use to their advantage. “Kark” Asani whispered to herself, looking around for Sagitta amongst the metal structures and doors. She took a moment then, a deep breath and silenced the speed with which she was attemptting to move. Having sensed the location of her sister, she started running in the direction she knew she would find Sagitta.
It took a moment to approach, her small stature didn’t lend itself to power but speed instead. Soon she was within earshot of her sister she tried to get her attention with a whistle, something quick so that she might give her a look.
Her head turned at a whistle. She sees Asani. “B-but” She gestures aggressively toward the Tookas.
“I-” Then she waved her hands “Gah!” She’ll come back here tomorrow or something and try to get food out to lure them into her arms.
Yea. That’ll work. She went over to Asani, “What’s up?” She removed her helmet and held it with one of her hands to listen to the audio message. “Kriff.” She quickly put it back on. “Well, one of the two things is going to happen. They will consider this as a loss or-” She glances at the container where the shipment was.
“If this is all they have… they may fight for this. I already checked around. It’s pretty quiet around here though there’s still some time for them to come in if they wish.” She paused for a moment. Kark. What should they do? If they weren’t interrogating the frackin human, the units would be on the way.
“This became a lot more complicated than we both expected…. we should go back to the shipment and hide somewhere…. do you have any ideas?” Sagitta suggested to Asani and would like to hear her input as well.
Seeing her sister hesitate she lifted her arms and shook her head. Taking a look at the direction Sagitta was staring at she spotted some Tookas. Asani let out a sigh before shaking her head, only Sagitta could turn a bust into a pet rescue. Thankfully her sibling decided to join her quickly and heard the message. Their next few actions had to be fast now, they had to take all posibilities into consideration and act without hesitating.
“Our best course of action is to either destroy it so it doesn’t become part of the already over crowded underworld…hide a tracker in a package or take another prisoner and see what they might have to say. Either way we have to plan it out fast otherwise we’re poodoo and wont manage anything.” She commented at her sister, there were a few courses of actions they could take, the point was to get to the source of the problem, or take the problem down. Either way they needed todo something about the shipment.
“Alternatively you can talk to the gentleman” The way she uttered the word gentleman almost make it sound like an insult. “Or big jaws see if either of them have anything figured out yet” she continued, her tail swishing around a few times. She was giving her sister options and ideas. It was better they take every action into consideration before jumping too fast into anything.
Sagitta listened. Ugh. This was why she does not want to be a leader. Ever. She hated this. Too many variables. Too many risks.
This was supposed to be a simple ass drug bust. Arrest them, call the drugs in, ta-da! All done.
But no. Things had to get complicated.
Her eyebrow rose, not that Asani would see it. She noticed the venom in her voice when she said gentleman but she had none when calling that Shani, big jaws. “Since when do you have problems when I meet people? I did move out. I’m going to make new friends. No. You know what-” She so badly wanted to pinch the bridge of her nose. Asani and her have been struggling to reestablish their relationship and she wasn’t going to ruin it. Instead, her hand was clenched into a fist before she exhaled. “Okay. Let’s throw in the tracker. I’ll stay behind and use my cloak while you find them and give them a heads-up. Then come back in case they arrive. If they follow or not, is up to them.”
Sagitta hopped down from the containers and shoved the datapad between the bags to keep it hidden. When that was done, she tried to jump onto a container. Her focus wasn’t well because she was trying to control her frustration and anger at the situation.
CLANG
Sagitta yelped in pain as she landed on her back. Her knee was throbbing in pain.
Her eyes just stared at the skies for a moment.
Then she ever so lovingly pointed her middle finger at the sky. 🖕 🖕 🖕
“Its not new friends I worry about, Its men, I don’t need a reason to protect my baby sister.” Asani clarified her tone showing she was being serious and genuine. She rarely ever expressed exasperation or had a tone that wasn’t something filled with mischief at the end. No this tone was different it was strong, protective even. The kushiban cared enough to show it to her sibling, even if it wasnt in the best way possible.
“We can just call it in if you want, we dont need to get further involved” she continued, knowing perhaps all of the options might’ve overwhelmed her sister, who wasn’t used to a role as a leader or as the head of anything really. She looked at her sister as she hopped down from the containers and began shoving something into the bags. And what appeared to be an attempt to clamber onto the containers once more.
CLANG
She began laughing at her sister landing on her back. She continued to watch as her sister agonized and flipped a finger at the sky. “Be careful Gita, that stuff hurts.” she said between wheezes. She took her leave then, more climbing down gently than jumping and darting off. If Sagitta had anything to say to her this might’ve been the moment.
The Mirialan stared at the sky a bit longer. Asani’s noticeable disdain of penis bearers did not go escaped from Sagitta.
She can hear Asani laughing as she grumbled and sat up, checking her knee. Nothing bad. Just bruised.
“Okay! I’ll bring a beautiful woman to family dinner tomorrow!” Sagitta resisted urge to stick her tongue out at Asani because helmet. Got up from the floor she hopped up onto the containers with ease.
“She can be a Wookie, a Kaminoan, you can even bring a loth cat for all I care!” Asani shouted in return. Her disdain seemed obvious, it was either directed at Cole himself or at men at large, given the fact she had no problem with any previous penis bearer, it was very likely an issue with Cole.
Asani shook her head and rolled her eyes at her younger sister. Granted not that shed be able to see it because of her helmet but she had done it.
She had decided then to dash off toward the direction the ‘interrogation’ was taking place. Then it dawned on her she wasn’t exactly sure where it is they might be performing this little trick. She ran back to her sister as fast as she could, stopping or really sliding before coming to a halt. “We don’t actually know which way they went…” Asani mentioned. It had escaped both of them to ask and make sure they had an actual plan in unison. For all they knew the trio could be long gone, or taking their time.
“Guess we’re waiting unless you want to call it in?“ She asked her tail swishing gently while she crossed her arms.
To say Sagitta was baffled was an understatement. Why was Asani asking for more details when she had laid with Doon and showed such disdain to Cole? Ah well. It was nothing for her to worry about. What’s the odds that Cole and her would meet again after this mission?
Sagitta tensed at seeing movement but was surprised to see Asani. She gave her sister a blank stare. “Wow. You didn’t remember that I said I called it in?” She looks at her com, “ETA is 52 minutes? Are you losing your touch?” The Mandalorian smirked, ready for another sibling rivalry.
“And you can’t even track three beings. Did you learn nothing from Buir?”
He wasn’t far off. It took approximately twelve seconds before he began spasming in his seat again. But Savran couldn’t tell, nor did she truly care, whether his pathetic squirming was because of the lack of air or the pain of having his skin flayed from his flesh. Savran removed the tape from his face and the rag from his mouth, giving the man the privilege of breathing with ragged breaths. Each breath was punctuated by howls of pain while Cole peeled his skin.
It was a slow process. Cole didn’t like keeping the skin like some would, that was… Gross. Frankly. Despite the disturbing choices made by some who’d use this method, he still took the time to ensure it came off in one piece. It was a slow one and it took a certain level of skill to do so with a moving target. The ability to do that usually caused as much upset in the person as the actual process itself if he just carved away. He didn’t speak as Savran removed the gag, only glancing up for a moment before continuing onward, as if he was merely removing excess fat from a loin of meat before searing. The back of the hand was easier, the fingers were.. a challenge.
The skin was thinner so it was harder to do it properly but as a method of torture it was more effective due to all the nerve endings and how thin the skin was. Some bits were falling loose as a side effective of doing this with a partially rusted slice of snapped metal.
“Oh so that’s where were going okay” Asani said surprised her sister was giving her a resistant amount of lip service. This was usually reserved for the ship but this day was clearly the exception. Why was she being so protective of this one guy? or was it just Asani’s imagination fueling this little rivalry?
“Oh so little miss ”I don’t like the Force its scawy wawy”, is telling ME how to track things now?” she imitated Sagitta’s voice and way of speaking for a moment as she made her point about her sister’s reservations with the Force.
“But if you’re so inclined to show me how to track then by all means.” Asani now had her arms pointing in the direction the trio has headed in. Hearing the screams Asani was reassured she had been going in the right direction. “Or maybe you can’t hear the distant screaming over all the blaster shots you keep taking?” the lagomorph asked. They were testing each other it seemed.
Brinath was frothing at the mouth at this point, reduced to a heap of mindless blathering and labored breaths. His shirt was drenched in sweat, dripping down to form a shallow pool beneath his feet. By the time Cole got to his fingers, Brinath was practically shouting at the top of his lungs.
“WAIT! WAIT. N-No more … No more. I’ll tell you. I’ll kriffing tell you.”
Savi glanced in Cole’s direction with a grin. Then, they turned back to Brinath and looked at him with an expectant expression.
Brinath took ragged breaths, wolfing down as much air as he could before beginning to speak. “Das Urchaeron,” he began, “His kriffing name is Das Urchaeron, alright? Chagrian boss. Big time broker with his fingers in all the pots. Mean as hell, too.”
Brinath’s eyes drifted down to his hand, and the man let out a sorrowful groan of a noise when he saw the flayed flesh of his hand.
“Don’t worry,” Savran interjected after witnessing his reaction, “You won’t live long enough for it to get infected. Cole. Anything else you want to know from this palnan?”
Cole had stopped once he promised to speak, pulling the blade away. The flesh was still attached by the two fingers Cole hadn’t gotten yet, hanging loosely.
He considered it, before adding on an additional question, “What are his usual locations to meet with you, or anywhere else he frequents?”
“I don’t know that,” he admitted, panting heavily. “You think I know where a player that big hangs out?” He shouted and struggled against his restraints again.
“We communicated through proxies. Encrypted calls. Never face to face.”
Savi folded their arms across their chest while listening. “He’s telling the truth, Cole. Let’s kill him and get out of here.”
“Hm.”
Cole mulled it over, before adjusting his grip on the slice of metal and walking round to Brinath’s side and slamming it into his temple. The rough edges scraped Cole’s palm at the sudden impact and the Human sighed looking down at it once he let go. That was gonna need a thorough cleaning.
Wiping his palm off on his trousers, he glanced back toward Savi, “How much do you know about that one? He was aligned with your circles.”
Sagitta huffed as she glared at Asani. Not that she would know because she was wearing her helmet, but she was certain that her sister would feel it. “You can track without the Force, I’m not the one so depen-” She stopped. “Shush!” She quickly held up her finger as she frowned. “Do you hear that?” She asked Asani. She could hear the screaming as she glared at her. “Like I said you can track-” Then she stopped again. Wait. The screaming stopped and there were… louder sounds.
Figured to get up to the higher ground, Sagitta climbed up onto the containers again.
“Fine. I’ll use the Force.” She gritted her teeth and focused. Her head whipped to the West. “Oh, Kark. INCOMING.” She swung her rifle around. There’s no way they can take them all but she figured she can take out the main threat.
While she prepared her sniper, “Kriff it, set the drugs on fire! Then we gotta find them now and get the hell out!” She looked through the scope. Steady breathing.
Squeeze the trigger.
Blood splatter. Kriff. Not a karking headshot. The speeder spun to a stop. She aims for the next one to cover Asani while Asani, hopefully, complies and burns the drugs.
Once Cole finished the job, Savran kicked over the chair Brinath was tied to, causing it and his body to hit the ground. They turned to Cole. “Nothing helpful,” they replied, “Only heard his name from time-to-time. Powerful broker. Deals in information and the connections he has. Like a ghost, though. One thing you can be sure of is that if there’s anything big happening in the underground, he likely has something to do with it or knows who does.”
A pause in the conversation provided space for a distant sound. The unmistakable choom of a blaster rifle rang out through the night. Their expression darkened. “Did you hear that?”
“Speeders.” Cole responded, grabbing for his rifle. It was the sniper he chose, though he wasn’t sure if it was the best option if they couldn’t move in time. “We should get in a better vertical position. They’ll be expecting us to be in the yard if they’re expecting any stragglers. Sounded like someone opened opened fire, we can flank them. If those two were still waiting for the load to be picked up, it’s probably best we don’t like them get killed and have the drugs fall back into Urchaeron’s fold.”
“You can do that. I work best in the fray,” Savran replied while leading the way out of the building and back into the cargo yard proper. They could already feel their heart thumping in their chest in anticipation of the coming fight. They had been in more firefights than they could count, yet it never got old.
Once they were outside, Savi wasted no time in sprinting back to where the four of them had met with each other prior. Asani was the first person they saw, so they addressed her first. “What’s happening?”
Unsurprisingly there was a staircase, which Cole made his way up on for a floor. It only went up one more, but going too high would put any kind of extraction from the building at a higher risk. No. There was enough height here to make it work.
The windows were all closed, so he made a point of opening several of them around the room. The more points he had to use without breaking the glass the longer he’d have before he got spotted. The speeders were coming from the same direction, so he settled himself in what was hopefully the best vantage point initially. He’d have to switch if they moved deeper into the yard, potentially even move to the roof of the building or go to the ground, but this was to his advantage for now.
“Hear what?” Asani could hear a faint buzzing in her ear she couldn’t place. A bug? No couldnt be.
Oh,Kark. INCOMING
Asani heard the buzzing and her sisters shout, letting instinct take her she began to move shifting her position toward where Sagitta was pointing.
“Krif it, set the drugs on fire!” her sibling commanded. “Make up your mind! Do we destroy em or confiscate them?!” Asani asked shouting from her position. Running towards where the drugs where, how was she even going to burn anything? She had no explosives or way to start a fire.
“Guess this’ll have to do” she decided to toss a magazine into the container full of all of the would be confiscated lot. Taking a shot at the tossed magazine, the blast had managed to heat up causing an explosion within the container, if they had any plans on confiscating anything, they were out of luck now.
“There ya happy?!” The elder sibling asked trying to find cover for herself now that the most important task was over, the fight for survival had just begun.
What’s happening?
‘Jaws’ as Asani was maybe not so affectionally referring to Savran had managed to arrive just in time. “We’ve got trouble, AND SOMEONE CANT MAKE UP THEIR MIND!” Asani shouted then in Sagittas direction. Whatever the siblings little rivalry was it was maybe getting out of hand or becoming a bit of a nuisance to the mission.
Sagitta gritted her teeth. She calmly spoke through the comms, “Not.” She fired at an enemy nearby. The body thud would be noticeable by Savi and Asani. “Now.” Another one hit the floor. “Asani.” She was trying to stay calm. Savi had approached Asani as her brows furrowed. Wait. Where was that guy? Oh, kark. What was his name?
She’s pretty sure she said it a few times that night… Carlos? No. Another enemy dropped dead. Then more dropped dead and it wasn’t by her rifle or Savi or Asani. Oh. Wow. So he’s good. Kriff.
Colton… Connor…
She stopped to reload quickly and grimaced when she felt the usual burning sensation on her right arm. Asnai would’ve heard the sharp inhale over the comm. Her eyes glanced over. Luckily, it was a graze and not a full hit, but can she ever go on a mission without getting shot!? Blood started to soak her armor but she ignored it for now. She needed to protect Asani. Two more bodies dropped dead.
Cory…
Cole!
Damn it! She missed the one she was aiming for!
Cole let loose one more shot, striking the mook in the head before he dipped down out of sight again. He’d probably been spotted if there were enough to spot him between the efforts of the group as a whole. Still, barring time to reload his sniper rifle, Cole switched his weapons and headed downstairs with haste. The position was compromised and if things progressed going further upstairs would only be more risky.
He turned each corner carefully, listening for a moment before sharply twisting around the edge itself to ensure he had the full amount of time that he could to react if someone was there.
Not that there was.
The Human began making his way toward the others.
Having managed to find cover, along with the ability to really be hard to hit, the lagamorph creature was aiming at the incoming enemy. She seemed to be enjoying herself maybe more than she should have.
“If” she started commenting at her sister through the comms, a shot reverberating outside of their comms followed by a faint thud, Sagitta would be able to hear it if she had her helmet set right. “not” Asani continued as another shot and thud sounded, she seemed to be mimicking what it was her sibling was doing, using the sound of the shots to highlight her words.
“now” This was either a prank or a way to mark her words carefully, or the older sibling was messing with the younger. Whatever it may be she was just distracted by the enemy by the end of it, but she was committed to the joke. “then” another shot, a fearful shout sounded out, “when” this shot was accompanied by a thud much like all the others had been “Gita?” she mumbled something while taking her last shot.
“Did you get shot again?“ she asked Sagitta a tone of concern clear through the comms, Asani hadn’t missed the sharp inhale she had given and was worried for the well being of her sister.
While the other three picked off enemies from afar, Savran tore through any mook that had the misfortune of running into them. Weaving through the maze of shipping containers and slicing enemies in twain, they eventually lost count of how many people they cut down. The fighting was short and violent. It didn’t take long for the sound of blaster fire to cease.
Savi stepped out into the open, looking around to note the location of their impromptu allies. “Well, that was easier than–”
The sound of another blaster shot, noticeably deeper in pitch than the others, interrupted the shani’s sentence. By the time they registered what they’d heard, it was already too late. The pain didn’t register at first. Just the sensation of wind rushing across their face. Wind created when they were flung clear across the courtyard, closer to where Asani and Sagitta were. The ground was cold and unforgiving when they landed. Pain erupted from their side and, most prominently, their abdomen. Something felt wrong. Broken. Their head spun and their surroundings bled into a dizzying landscape of colors as their equilibrium fought to correct itself. What the kark happened?
One hand found its place on their torso to examine their wound. No blood. No torn fabric in their robes, but it felt like they’d been hit by a battering ram. Ribs were broken. They fought against the pain to pull air back into their lungs.
Cole was still arriving on the scene, a distance away. But Savi going flying was hard to miss. So was the hulking figure across the way.
He moved on instinct of twenty years of practise with blasters. Raising the weapon, he had it aimed in a moment and-
click
The Human ducked out of sight, cursing internally. Hopefully the beast of a man or.. whatever it might be was more focussed on the others. He didn’t bother to unjam the gun. It was inconvient but he still had two grenades and another gun. The sniper rifle was less convient so close, but it’d have to as he armed himself with it once more.
Sagitta grunted at Asani’s comment. “Listen here you-”
‘Did you get shot again’
“A kriffin scratch!” Then she stopped. “Wait…” She muttered as she looked into the scope then her eyes widened. “SLUGTHR-” She couldn’t even finish the sentence as she was hit in the side, ending her off of the container and onto the ground below. Sagitta grimaced when her back hit the ground. “Asani! Slugthrower!” She gasped again, “Take cover!” Stumbled for a bit, she got up from the ground and her hues looked up. Her rifle was there. No way was she going to try to go up there.
“Kark! Asani, can you use the Force to flash bang?” She asked while taking in a few deep breaths.
Pain was a blessing. It’s a gift. She’s alive. It’s not a curse.
“Remember that time when I distracted that she-akk and you flash banged and we took her down? Let’s go. Let me know when.”
“Asani! Slugthrower!”
“How do you get yourself into these messes?!” The older sibling asked, hearing the youngers suggestion for a flash. Asani could hear her sibling had been smacked around a bit. Stubborn as she was only one person was allowed to mess with her sister in any way. Herself. She approached and moved near enought to the creature to get a decent view. Giving it further inspection she realized a flash would be useless. It was nothing more than a monstrosity of flesh and machine stitched together.
“I’m gonna have to burst your bubble Gita but THAT THING DOESNT HAVE EYES!!! Get your head out of bantha poodoo before that thing makes us BOTH one with the force!” she commented trying to get further away from it now that she had an idea of what it could be. “A cyborg” she said over the comms, letting her sister know they might be up against something smarter than a mere droid. “Or something close to it. Be car-”
Before she knew it thought she had been send flying, it took some time and a bit of a tumble, but her armor had managed to take the brunt of the hit. “I’m gonna be feeling that tomorrow…” she commented standing back up, her voice sounding annoyed now. Shed dash for whatever cover she could find before considering her next move.
Cole heard the comment of it being blind. It was yelled by the Kushiban. Were they still bickering? He couldn’t say much but on a mission? Unprofessional. It was a moment that was quickly followed by him unclipping a flash grenade from his belt. The impact and sound would hopefully still disorientate the.. thing.
Cole stepped out from behind his cover, throwing the grenade at the cyborg. He yelled, as he did, “TAKE COVER!”
Then the Human stepped behind his own and covered his ears. He didn’t want to yell he was throwing a flash, in case the beast covered its own ears, but hopefully taking cover would get the others to cover their eyes enough to not be affected at least.
Savran, after hearing Cole’s warning, pulled themselves to their feet and rushed over into a nearby open container. The blast went off shortly afterward. From just inside the container door, they could be heard shouting to Sagitta and Asani: “Get your druk together and save your incessant bickering for when you’re alone, montāl tik'yoke!”
Sagitta gritted her teeth. Asani would not let up. Course. She’s used to it for years so she actually started to ignore the insults.
Until.
Sagitta was informed that it doesn’t have eyes. What the kark? Then Asani had to keep going. She so badly wanted to tell Asani to chill out but she knew if she did, Asani would continue. Then the Kushibun abruptly stopped, “Are you okay?” Her voice was full of concern.
‘Take cover!’
Sagitta wasn’t going to say no to that. She quickly dropped down by the container and closed her eyelids. Her helmet helped with the reduction of explosion sound.
She could hear Savi over the comm and grimaced. Sagitta knew Asani would retaliate unless - “We need to use our lightsabers and now is the time!” With that, she grabbed her lightsaber. It felt so cold through the gloved hand. It hummed to life as she swung at the cyborg’s arm and missed. He went for a punch and she quickly sidestepped.
“Im okay Gita, nothing a good nap won’t cure” Asani replied to her sister inquiry about her condition. Truthfully the armor had grabbed the brunt of the attack but she knew it would likely bruise for a while. She shook her head gently in an attempt to banish the pain.
Take Cover!
Followed by ‘Jaws’ telling them “Get your druk together and save your incessant bickering for when you’re alone, *montāl tik'yoke!”
Asani heard their two compatriots while taking cover behind a container. The lagomorphs irritation seemed to increase. She didn’t take well to others orders it seemed.
“I will bicker till the life fades out of my eyes and I’m one with the Force!” she proclaimed, her tone had gone from what sounded like annoyance to rage. She was getting angry. She took the opportunity then to slow down the cyborgs movement with the use of the Force.
“If you’re going to be helpful you better make it quick!” she yelled out, it was gently muffled by her helmet. She would require her full concentration on this task, if they wanted to take that thing down, the opening she was providing would be their chance.
Well the Kushiban was still talking so Cole assumed all was well. The Human turned the corner, adept at taking good aim while shooting and catching the cyborg while it was off guard, while Sagitta and Asani distracted it.
The beam of energy slammed into its thigh, cauertising part of the surface but leaving it still bloodied and damaged. It was still walking but the limp was severe and the bleeding wasn’t likely to stop on it’s own.
Not quite the shot he wanted, but with Sagitta’s movements around it he didn’t really want to be too risky and potentially harm a friendly.
Sagitta swung her lightsaber at the cyborg’s torso but winced in pain. and unable to finish the movement. The hit from the slugthrower had decreased her range of motion and she didn’t realize it until now.
Continuing to heal themselves, Savran ignored the Kushiban’s retort in favor of focusing on mending the damage done to their ribs and the surrounding muscle tissue. They hit a stride in the process, allowing them to heal most of the damage. It would still be sore, but they could work with that.
Once that was finished, they closed their eyes and took a deep breath. Reaching out through with the Force, they began to connect their mind to the other three people who had become their unlikely teammates. Entering a battle meditation, they worked to bolster the resolve, confidence, and battle synergy of the three combatants, and to weaken the resolve of their cybernetically-enhanced foe.
Cole hadn’t expected to feel that interconnected, almost resisting for a moment before realising what it was. With that, he allowed himself to focus in, stepping from his cover once more and raising the sniper, focussed on the most dangerous part of this target.
The slugthrower.
He exhaled and fired, the bolt passing the side of the cyborgs head and into the mechanism of the slugthrower, the sudden burst of plasma causing severe damage to the weapon. Not that Cole remained out in the open long enough for it to be tested whether or not the damn thing still worked. He’d assume not, but he was ever one to be careful.
“I cant keep this up forever” Asani mumbled exasperated, grabbing her blaster and taking a shot at the creature and managing to land a hit. She felt successful for all of the two seconds she had managed to land the hit. Now she was wondering why it was that creature seemed to just be running around without any concept of pain or anything in between. They had damaged it, but it continued to tumble around less like a living creature and more like a thing.
“I don’t think it even feels when it gets hit…” She communicated her findings to her sister over comms. This wasn’t a willing creature by the most obvious definition, it was definitely something created and maybe not for any helpful purpose. “If you’re planning anything, make sure it works, I’m distracting it as much as I can!” she warned the group, this was not something they could keep at bay forever if any of them received enough damage to leave the group without a member they would need a new strategy.
Sagitta was kriffin’ done. She deactivated her lightsaber and clipped it back to her belt. It wasn’t helping her anyways. Speaking of the Force not helping her she felt a stronger connection. What the- No matter. She quickly got in front of the cyborg, “I-” She started as her hands rested on their shoulder cause it was all she could grab with the frackin mechanical parts, “Had” She pulled him towards her while going to between the legs of the cyborg and her foot was up against at the right place at the lower stomach area for their weight to be balanced and she legit pushed, “Enough!” and the cyborg went over her head and thrown onto the ground.
Cole didn’t hesistate to use the gap in it’s ability to defend to shoot once more. It didn’t have a head, but it wasn’t exactly unclear when there was a weak point, espeically when it was a shining gem set into something’s chest.
It wasn’t his best shot but it was enough, piercing through the crystal and shattering it.
The combined efforts of the four warriors placed the creature, the monstrosity, in a position for Cole to line up the final shot. When the blaster shot hit the crystal embedded in its chest, it cracked and then shattered, releasing a sound that those present could have sworn was the sound of distant *wailing*. The slugthrower-headed creature began to violently convulse before finally going still ... dead.
Once that was over, the three of them would feel the Force connection dissipate as Savran stepped out from the shipping container and stepped up to the creature’s body. It didn’t take long for the other three to join them next to it.
“Have you ever seen anything like this?” they asked while glancing at Cole.
They had managed to defeat whatever the creature was. Asani began inspecting it for anything useful or noteworthy but couldn’t really seem to notice anything that struck out to her as useful or otherwise distinct.
“I certainly havent, looks like a cyborg, but without a proper head. What do you think it is Gita?” she asked her younger sibling unsure if maybe she had seen something of the same nature outside of the confines of their home. “Anything you’ve encountered before? or either of you?” she asked their companions. Any information or knowledge was better than nothing.
Cole approached, glancing over it. It was more by chance than anything that the Human spotted the strange bump under the cyborgs skin.
“Does anyone have a knife?”
He glanced round, crouching beside its arm.
“Aw come on! Did no one see that-“ she puffed her cheeks for a bit as the three gathered around the cyborg. Fine. It was okay.
Sagitta squatted down by Cole’s side and hear him as she reached to her beskar dagger, and handed it to him. Asani would know that was her first weapon and was a treasure to Sagitta from Buir. “Oooooh I see it, I could get it!”
Cole took the dagger and with a few rough cuts that weren’t exactly precise, it didn’t take long to expose the data chip. Synthflesh attached the wires into the arm itself and a strange symbol was printed onto the metal.
“Well. That’s new. I’ve seen things with crystals in them before but.. that was a lot more Force related than this seems.”
He shifted to stand, wiping the blood off the blade before handing it back to Sagitta.
“I wouldn’t be so certain,” said Savi, reaching out to take the object from Cole’s hand. They inspected it for a few moments, attuning to it with the Force before handing it back with a contemptible expression of their face. “This thing reeks of the Dark Side,” they said. That normally wouldn’t be a problem since they dabbled in its use themselves, but this was different. Not merely the result of an indulging of one’s passions, but the work of someone malevolent … twisted.
Cole sighed, having held it out for Savi to take and evidently not happy at the discovery.
“So common drug lords have access to biologically altering Force crystals. Kriff I was hoping it wasn’t that. They’re usually more.. covered in the crystal though. If its the same kind…”
He crouched down again, shifting to get a look but not touch the fragments of crystal.
Sagitta nodded as she took her blade back and sheathed it. She was slightly impressed that he was kind enough to wipe the blood off before he handed it back to her. Sagitta glanced at the crystal and watched as Savi took it and handed it back to Cole. She cringed at the word Dark Side and apparently, the item they had found reeked of it.
“That’s a concern,” Sagitta muttered as she patted around her body but couldn’t find what she was looking for. “Ah.” She took off her helmet and set it on the ground for now. She went to one of the dead bodies and ripped some clothes. The Mirialan headed back over and gestured to Savi to put the crystal on top of. Once they did, she wrapped it up in the clothing. “I’ll be sure to turn this over. I’m now wondering if.. this really is a common drug lord?” Then she sighed, “Things had gotten complicated. Imagine if every drug exchange has one of those… cyborgs.” Then she glanced over at Asani. “Do you feel anything from those crystals?” Figured she would ask her since she was more in tune with the Force than she was.
Asani sighed at the mention of the dark side. She hated having to deal with anything orchestrated by a bigger threat. She wasn’t a fan of being sent on wild chases after things that go bump in the night.
“Well you’re the lead why dont you sense something? I won’t always be around to sense things for you.” she commented giving the creature another look. A slight wipe at a part closer to her to take a closer view.
“Ive been on my fair share of ventilation systems, small spaces in ships the works. This things parts are cheap. The look might be impressive for lack of another word, but the actual parts? Cheap.” she commented, taking note of what parts they were built from. “We might be able to trace this thing back a bit, or have more of an idea of where its being built by looking for parts and who’s buying them. Bit of a long shot though, since they’re so cheap the net would be too widespread.” Asani seemed to be lost in thought her focus on looking for any other clue in the wreckage.
Sagitta pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘For kriff’s sake, Asani.’ Her eyelids are closed. It was a way for her to calm down and use the Force.
Breathe.
One. Two. Th-
She quickly placed her hand on Cole’s shoulder, “Ah… careful… those are tainted too.” Before holding her hands up to show she meant no harm by grabbing him with an apologetic expression on her face. Most people don’t like to be grabbed and she just reacted on instinct. She was sure he was one of those people since she had tried to grab his hand in the past and he pulled back.
Cole had flinched away slightly at the sudden touch, glancing round to see who it was even as Sagitta began to speak. He shifted a little but nodded, “Wasn’t planning on touching them.”
He looked for a good minute before speaking, “They look like ascendant crystals. But.. different. I’m not sure if any of you would know about the attack on Selen last year but the creatures were infused with crystals similar to this. The ones I’ve seen have usually been… Well I’m not entirely sure how it works, they weren’t exactly sharing ritual recipes for it but they never included technology before. Someone’s reversed engineered this and used the Force to make it accept it, if I had to guess.” The Human shook his head as he shifted to stand once more, “It could potentially be being controlled through the chip. I know people who could look at it, safely.”
“This doesn’t seem like the work of everyday gangsters or even drug lords,” Savi commented, having ruminated on the information that the group had uncovered.
When Sagitta mentioned turning the chip over, Savi shook their head sternly. “No, give it to me,” they said, and they didn’t sound like they were going to take no for an answer. “If you turn that in to the officials of Selen or of Arcona, that could possibly tip whoever created it off. Then, they’re in the wind. Leave it to me. I’ll shake some trees and see what falls.”
“Hate to say it but i agree with her.” Asani commented as Savi finished. “There’s also no telling if the problems coming from within either, Selen or Arcona. Best we can do is take photo evidence and take that to a trusted source. I might try to rip metal off see if i can determine any part origins.” she finished as she looked to the group.
“This could become a bigger problem in the future. If this is just a prototype we have a chance of stopping things like this one from getting out and hurting others. If its the final phase were lucky its easy to take down and can warn others but we have to hurry and we have to be smart about it.” the lagomorph was unusually serious in tone considering what the others might’ve seen of her previous attitude.
Sagitta nodded when Cole mentioned that he wasn’t planning on touching them.
Then she grimaced.
She should’ve really paid attention to the crash course classes she had been taking since she got enrolled. Maybe this would be motivation enough for her to stay awake at least most of them. Savi chimed – no — ordered their way to get the chip as Sagitta felt a bit defensive and concerned. She doesn’t know who they are.
Asani seemed to agree with Savi and even Cole looked indifferent. Her jaw was tight but she nodded and handed it over to Savi. She glanced at Asani and nodded, “While this was difficult to take down, there’s always a weak point. Let’s hope it doesn’t get any more complicated.” Yet, deep down inside, the Mirialan knew that things had already gotten much more complicated.
‘Kriff off, Force.’
Oh so the Tekuani was aware of the Brotherhood. Hm. So was Asani which inevitably meant so did Sagitta. Realistically, they would know he was too from the name he gave of who he was working for. Or.. well. Maybe not.
On the off chance they had just heard rumour, Cole deemed it unnecessary to share the connection.
Savi would likely find it odd how he held it out with so little question, though he remained quiet as he did. Silent permission for them to take it and go on. After all, he was going to give it to the exact same people.
“Glad to hear you agree,” they said. And that she had some sense. “Do what you want with it but leave it intact, so I’ll have something to work with. And you may be right. This could be a trial run for whoever made this thing. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Savran extended a hand to take the chip and narrowed their eyes at Cole. They expected more resistance from the man. Shrugging their shoulders, they took one of their knives and pried off one the metal plates covering its face, and tossed it to Asani afterward.
“Now, I’m going to get out of here before we get more visitors.”
Asani managed to barely grab the tossed plate fumbling with it in her hands before it fell, making a rather annoying sound, she reluctantly picked it up. “Before you head off mind if i take photo evidence of our little crystal? Id like to search for anything that could resemble it.” she made a comment, as much as memory was nice, photos were nicer.
“Anything you want to add?” she looked to Cole now curious as to why he may have been so quiet. He seemed the type to comment or complain about details but seemed to be quiet too. Maybe he just wasn’t the chatty type.
Cole took a second. Savi wasn’t taking it anywhere he couldn’t find the Intel on it himself. The other two had nothing he wished to mention. After a few seconds he shrugged and added on for the sake of responding, “Lightsabers nor blasters aren’t effective against the crystals. Same with penetrative melee weaponry. Explosives are better.”
It sounded like he was reading off a debriefing from the lack of emotion in his tone. Though, it was hard to tell the difference on that.