A Thief, A Smuggler and a Hive, what could go wrong

[Thresco]

Small runs to small, insignificant space stations, that was all his life currently entailed. As upsetting as it might have been, it was the life he had chosen after quitting his job at MandalMotors and becoming a freelancer. Smuggling, Slicing, hunting down a wanted man or simply hunting down dangerous animals, he was willing to do it all under a different alias. Working over protected frequencies and always wearing a helmet, the Mandalorian made sure that he was not recognizable. This was for a couple of very good reasons, though the first and foremost one was the fact that he had no interest in someone recognizing him out in the open and shooting him in the face. In his line of work, a certain amount of cloak and dagger-esque behavior was one of the first things one had to master if they had any intention of living very long. After all, the galaxy was a large place, filled with millions upon millions of different races, factions and organizations. In the void of space, there was no police, not really. So if an assassin managed to find out who was behind the mask and managed to track him down, he'd be as good as dead. That said, the only time when he kept himself hidden was when he was doing work as a bounty hunter.

Being quite blessed with a silver tongue, he managed to talk his way out of quite some dangerous situations, as well as some run-ins with local law and authorities. The good thing about being a smuggler is the fact that one can easily hide the goods under something legal, or in a storage space hidden under the floor of the cargo hold, which was honestly how he had been getting by up until this point. Aside from that there was also the whole cargo drop to be picked up at a later time, which became possible thanks to his AI checking open frequencies and hacking into other comms channels that seemed suspicious to it. It was one of the finer qualities Torgost had been built with. But than again, it had been built by Thresco himself, so there was a good chance that it was just about as smart as he was.

 

[Thresco]

Today however, things were a bit different. Hired by someone calling himself the Innovator, he had been tasked with retrieving a shipment of various building materials, including but not limited to synthmesh, durasteel, carbon and even the mandalorian iron, beskar. Knowing just how expensive such things could be, especially when purchased in bulk, he could imagine why they had asked someone like him to go and retrieve it. A regular freighter would have been too obvious a target for pirates, especially when having to travel all the way from Concordia to Duro. The Jiriad Kadiilir was a relatively fast ship with a decent sized cargo hold, easily big enough to take the requested cargo and more. Due to it being a Mandalorian manufactured ship, the ship could withstand a good amount of hits and had the weaponry required to take down the average fighter while only sustaining minimal damage. Agreeing to the terms the Innovator, which were simply to retrieve and drop the cargo on the surface of Duro at a currently undisclosed location, Thresco entered Concordia airspace while looking for a place to set down the ship. Leaving the ship in Torgost's care, he was dropped off on top of the storage facility from which he had to pick up several dozens of crates filled with raw materials.

By the time he had made it down, he was greeted by Mandalorians that were quite different from the ones he had grown up with, more refined and less eager to prove themselves. In the eyes of the "True" Mandalorians, they would likely be regarded as unworthy of the Mandalorian name. In Thresco's own opinion, it mattered very little. He had seen what good "true mandalorians" were when not a single ship came to stop the Sith that had entered Mandalore and butchered his clan. Maybe he was just bitter towards Mandalorians in general these days, though he had come to expect very little of those that considered themselves to be warriors capable of overcoming all obstacles. That much had been established the day his family had been murdered, an opinion that was now unlikely to ever change. In truth, he liked the more peaceful minded Mandalorians over the overzealous ones he had met in the past. The only Mandalorian warriors he had ever liked were the Jorr's, and aside from Thresco, they were all dead.

 

[Thresco]

Shaking hands with the Concordian, he made sure that he was the one supposed to pick up the merchandise, which apparently brought about a bit of a problem. As it turned out, someone else had arrived moments before him, claiming that he had also been sent to carry the cargo that had already been paid for. Believing that this person might have tapped into the same frequency used by the Innovator when he had contacted Thresco, he insisted that the Concordian showed him to where this man was. Opening the hangar door to the storage facility, he let Torgost know that he could bring the ship in. Flying the Jiriad Kadiilir straight into the hangar, the AI opened up the door to the cargo hold. Showing the Concordian merchant the file that had been signed by the Innovator, the man was now assured that Thresco was the real transporter, thus strengthening his own resolve when it came to leading the Mandalorian smuggler to the fake. With his hand guns in their holsters, he was prepared to blow the faker away if he made any wrong choices during their encounter. As it turned out, whoever tried screwing him over had the audacity to remain inside of the same building, waiting in the Concordian's office until he was ready to let him take the merchandise.

Telling the Concordian to stay outside, he kicked the door in, walking in a straight line towards a male Bith. Being just about the last thing the Mandalorian had expected, it turned out that the Bith had not exactly expected to be set upon by the real transporter either. Putting both his hands up into the air the moment he saw that Thresco already had his right hand resting on the handle of his blaster pistol, it looked like it was actually scared. Inspecting it closely, there were a few things that stood out about the little craniopod. The first thing he spotted was that he had a pistol hanging from his waist, which meant that he could still become a threat if he were to lower his arms. The second thing, which was the most peculiar, was the fact that Thresco could not feel his presence at all. Normally, he got some sort of strange vibe from people and animals, or just all life forms in general, a side-effect of his sensitivity to the Force, yet this guy felt like he was completely outside of the Force itself, which seemed impossible. His grandfather once told him that all living things were connected by the Force, which meant that the Bith was either not a living thing or something Thresco had never seen before.

 

[Thresco]

"I am going to give you once chance to take off that pistol and kick it over to me. If you do, we are going to have a little talk about what exactly is going on around here. If you do not want to talk and feel like reaching for that gun, I will splatter that massive head of yours all over this office. Don't think i'm joking, I welcome the chance to make an example out of you for anyone who might try to steal from me again.".

Drawing and keeping his pistol aimed straight at the large head of the Bith, he kept his finger on the trigger while the faker dropped his belt with the holster and the gun still attached to it to the floor. Kicking it over to Thresco, he picked it up and placed it on the desk next to him before sitting right next to it. Making the Bith lower his hands, he made sure that it stayed in the same spot at all times, not allowing it to take a seat as a means of amplifying the feeling of impending death. If he was to get the truth out of the Bith, he could not afford to behave like a nice guy, he had to instill the fear of death into him, the finest driving force behind honesty in the whole wide universe. Not lowering his gun for even a second, the Mandalorian released a deep sigh as he looked the Bith over, trying to figure out what his deal was. While a little bit saddened by the fact that he would not get to put a hole somewhere in the faker, he had given it his word, so he would refrain from using violence unless it became a necessity. If he felt like he was being lied to, he would rough bighead up fiercely. That much was a promise he was willing to keep to himself.

"Alright, now we can talk. First question, why did you come here pretending to be me, and how did you know that there was a pre-purchased shipment of materials ready for pick-up in the first place?".

 

[Thresco]

As he had expected, the Bith was not too hot on talking, meaning there was something worth hiding that he had to figure out. Firing a single shot, he barely missed the head of the Bith, causing it to cower in fear and start sniveling. Whatever he was, whoever he was, he was not much of a man and seemed like the biggest coward in the building. Keeping his eyes on the Bith from behind the cover of his helmet, he made sure that the craniopod would not forget who was holding the cards in this situation. When the Bith suddenly broke down crying however, the Mandalorian almost dropped his guard completely. It was about the last thing he had expected at this point, as none of the people he had ever pulled a gun on had ever responded in such a pathetic manner. Maybe there was more to this situation than he was willing to admit, though he would only figure out about it if the Bith was going to speak up about it. Standing back up, he grabbed the Bith by the collar and raised him off of the floor a bit, proving that he meant business even if his target was in tears.

"They were Bartokk.. they gave me this pendant and told me that there was a shipment of valuable beskar here, ready to be picked up. I don't know how they knew about it, all I know is that they would kill me if I refused. They gave me a small ship, just large enough to take the Cargo and meet them at a space station near Va'art. You have to believe me, I did not want to do this, but if they know that i've told you, they will kill me for sure. Please... the gun isn't even mine!".

Lowering his gun, he put the Bith back down and took a moment to consider that what the Bith was telling him was a very well fabricated lie. As a liar by trade, he could spot a well fabricated lie from the truth any day, and this Bith was most certainly not that good a liar. Putting his gun back into his holster, he gave the Bith his gun back, believing he would have more use for it than Thresco would. Looking him over, he saw that he indeed had some strange pendant on him, something that did not look like any kind of stone or mineral he had ever seen before. Grabbing a hold of it, he snatched it from the Bith's neck and put it into his pocket. As soon as he took it off, he could feel the presence of the Bith again, as if it was the pendant that had severed him, or rather, had hidden him from those attuned to the Force. Deciding to have a good look at the pendant at a later time, he waited for the Bith to put his belt back on and get ready.

 

[Thresco]

"Alright, you're going to come with me. Keep that gun close, but do not use it unless I tell you to. If your story checks out and these Bartokk do come for this shipment, they will not stop after they've killed me. If I die, you die. By now, the Concordians have most likely filled the ship with cargo, so we are going to head straight to the Corellian Trade Spine, where I will drop you off on one of the space stations. From there, you can begin to make your way back home in peace.".

"Can't you just hand me over to the Concordian authorities? I am sure they would understand if you took the time to explain the situa-".

"Sorry, can't do. I don't know you, so for all I know, you'll make a call to the Bartokk and let them know where I am headed, and I can't afford for such a thing to happen. Getting caught in space while having my cargo stolen will give me a bad name and keep me from finding a job again in the future, so I cannot let you out of my sight just yet. But you are safer on the Jiriad than you will be if you stay here, that much I can promise.".

Letting his words sink in for a bit, the Bith dried his tears and nodded, walking with Thresco as he left the office. Meeting back up with the Concordian merchant, he gave him a nod so as to tell him that the problem had been taken care of in a non-verbal manner. Most likely already expecting something along those lines since there had been no gunfire or screaming, the Concordian guided the Bith and the Mandalorian back to the Jiriad Kadiilir. Luckily for him, the workers had already finished up stacking all of the crates in an orderly fashion inside of his cargo hold, all the while watched closely by Chakaar and Torgost's on board cameras. Nothing escaped him, not on his own ship, he had made sure of that once he finished outfitting it to his liking. Guiding the Bith to his ship, he put him in the co-pilot seat, believing he would be most safe with him in the cockpit. As soon as the hangar doors opened, Thresco closed off his cargo hold door and took off into orbit, planning on flying straight to the Corellian Trade Spine in Hyperspace. Flying through the void of space, he tried entering Hyperspace several times, though it seemed that there was something keeping the ship from making the jump.

 

[Thresco]

Looking around to see where it might be coming from, he spotted a fairly large freighter ship closing in on their position. While it had the appearance of a freighter, even the least educated on the concept of ships could tell that it was heavily modified beyond the capabilities of the average mass transport ship. If the story of the Bith checked out, this was the freighter used by the Bartokk, meaning they had never stood a chance at getting out of Concordia in the first place. Checking the pendant he had taken from the Bith, he inspected it closely while giving control of the ship back to Torgost. Spotting a tiny piece of tech, he could tell that it was a tracker that had been planted on the fake transporter, something he should have seen coming. Feeling stupid for not spotting it sooner over his disbelief that such a stupid trinket could block out Force sensory abilities such as his own, he told Torgost to kick it and make their escape as soon as they possible could. When a sudden shock rocked the ship and nearly caused the Mandalorian to tip over, it seemed that the Jiriad Kadiilir had lost its freedom.

"Sir, it would appear that we have been caught in a tractor beam. We are being drawn toward the freighter, which I have determined is also the reason why we cannot enter Hyperspace. They are also trying to hack into our frequency, do you want me to accept their call?".

Thinking to himself, Thresco tried his best to come up with a plan that might let him get out of this predicament with his life and his cargo, though he knew that the Bartokk would not allow for such a thing to happen. He had heard stories of the Bartokk from his father, who told him that they were a hive-minded insectoid race that were highly skilled assassins. On a freighter like that that had been enhanced to take down small ships and draw them into close quarters where the insectoids thrived, fighting would most likely become just about impossible. Sure, he might be able to shoot some of them down, though they would swarm and kill him before he got the chance to get confirmed kills. Relieving himself of the deepest sigh he had let out since the death of his former master, he looked down at his pockets. He had promised himself never to use his lightsabers around people that would live to tell the tale, he figured that both himself and the Bith might not survive the encounter anyway. Putting his guns into their holsters, he took one of his lightsabers into his hands.

"Patch them through, i'd like to have a chat with those bugs...".

 

[Thresco]

As a Hologram appeared, he saw one of the Bartokk and a protocol droid standing next to it. As the Bartokk chattered in its own language, the protocol droid did the best it could to accurately translate what it was saying, creating a rather strange monologue. For a droid to speak like a Bartokk, who always spoke of themselves as a collective and never as a single person, it seemed to make even the droid uncomfortable as it stumbled a bit when it said "We" when it wanted to say "I". As it was having trouble relating the message, the Bartokk fiercely struck the droid with its exoskeletal arm, striking a dent into it and causing it to flinch. Shortly after that, it relayed the message perfectly without stammering.

"A good day to you, Mandalorian. We see you have taken our agent with you, meaning we won't need to explain our plans to you. You will soon be boarded, we will take your beskar and all other items of worth. Then, we will strip your ship for parts and leave you here for the authorities to find. That is, if you stand down and refrain from interfering. If you interfere, we will kill you both slowly.".

And just like that, the transmission ended. They did not care for his response, mostly because they believed him to be just a lone smuggler that had no combat skills, let alone knew how to fend off a small hive of Bartokk assassins. Biting down on his own teeth to the point where they just might have cracked if he had continued doing so any longer, he walked out of the cockpit and stepped into the cargo hold. Followed by the Bith, who was now holding on tightly to his blaster pistol, Thresco went over to Chakaar, the large Strill he had been keeping with him for over four years now. Petting the animal and telling it to stay put for the moment, it would serve his purpose once the Bartokk started their raid. Looking back at the no longer shivering Bith, he wondered if he was actually planning on fighting against the hive.

"If you truly want to survive, I suggest staying inside of the cockpit. I haven't used these in a while, so I may not be as successful as I hope I might be. If I die and you stay in the cockpit, you won't need to die too.".

"No... if you fight them alone, you won't stand a chance. When they took me in, there were at least fifteen of them, all acting in unison like a well-oiled machine. If I can take down at least one with this gun, it will have made a difference. You are in this mess because I was a coward, and besides, they won't stand a chance against a Jedi!".

"I admire the your guts, but you're wrong about one thing. I'm not a Jedi, i'm just a guy with a lightsaber...".

 

[Thresco]

When the ship stopped moving, another loud thump could be heard from outside of the ship as the freighter connected with the large fighter. A few moments later, the door opened and a group of at least six Bartokk stormed into the room. Not thinking twice, the Bith was the first to open fire, proving to Thresco that he had done the right thing in taking him on board and giving him his weapon back. Laying some decent hits on the Bartokk, they all shot into a wild rage and moved as a unit up until the moment where the Mandalorian activated his lightsaber. Causing the insectoids to freeze in their place, they lowered their bodies and chattered among themselves, undoubtedly rethinking their strategy. Not waiting for them to finish making new plans, the Mandalorian dove in and bisected the closest Bartokk to him with a two-handed strike for maximal raw force. As he did, Chakaar leaped from behind the crates and took one of the Bartokk in its mouth, crunching down on the exoskeleton and breaking it apart like clamps on a lobster, revealing the squishy insides of the bugman.

Not having expected such resistance, the Bartokk were temporarily out of it, though reinforcement would surely arrive soon. Not waiting around for them to get there, he drew his second lightsaber and went into a violent rampage, severing limbs left and right, cutting open chests, destroying their crude weapons as they tried to push the warrior back. Now that he had gotten the hang of it again, he remembered his old training, allowing him to fight like he had never done anything else in his life. Savagely battering down on the Bartokk, many were cut into several pieces as the saber cut through them likes a hot knife through a stick of butter. When the remaining three made a run for the freighter, Chakaar cut them off as the Bith shot them in the back, allowing the large Strill to utterly dismember them all. As the Bith gunslinger and the hungry Strill remained on the Jiriad Kadiilir, Thresco charged into the freighter, having decided that he was not going to let a single one of them live. If one did, there was a chance that they would restore the hive and go back to their antics, and that was something he could not condone.

 

[Thresco]

Setting foot inside of the freighter, the first thing he saw was the massive cargo hold beneath him, filled with riches he could not even begin to imagine at this point. He did not know how long the average Bartokk lived, but judging by the age of the ship, chances were that this particular hive had been at it for a very long time. Most likely longer than Thresco was old. Crossing a long walkway leading from the access gate that connected the freighter and the Jiriad Kadiilir, he knew that the cockpit was at the end of the at least fifty meters long passage. Dropping down from the ceiling, two large Bartokk warriors wielding what was undoubtedly Beskad swords blocked his path to the cockpit where the remainder of the Bartokk were surely preparing to make their last stand against their unexpected opponent. Closer inspection of the two warriors showed that their exoskeleton had been augmented with mandalorian iron plating, reinforcing their bodies a great deal. At that point, it became that much more clear why they had come to this portion of the galaxy. It was not just about the market value of beskar and other materials mined from Concordia and Mandalore, it was also about Mandalorian crafted weaponry and armor worn and wielded by the two warriors.

Attacking Thresco before he had the chance to make the first lunge, the two attacked with freakish precision and synergy, showing the deadliness of the Bartokk hive mind. Clashing his sabers against the beskad, his assailants used their bodies to move across the railing of the walkway, attacking him from the front and the sides. Leaving some deep nicks in his armor, the Mandalorian was growing increasingly restless as he realized that he just might not win this. Trying to find his inner peace, he had an idea that just might help him. Allowing the twins to keep striking at him until he saw the opening he needed, he kept his sabers low and went for the opening. Moving the sabers low behind him, he cut out part of the walkway before dashing forward with a spin, letting his blades carve through the walkway repeatedly until he fell to the floor with a load thump. A moment later, the Bartokk went down with the dropping portion of the walkway that had been cut loose. Regaining his composure as he rose back to his feet, he looked down to see that the Bartokk had fallen at least ten meters down, their armor cracked and their intestines hanging out of their still twitching bodies.

 

[Thresco]

While getting back to the Jiriad Kadiilir would be a little bit harder now that he did not have the same way to go back to, he kept moving on, knowing that there were at least a handful of Bartokk left in the cockpit of the freighter. Placing the lightsabers back into his pockets, he figured that the remaining ones would not be armed, or they would have come out already. Pressing the button to open the cockpit door, he watched the remaining Bartokk clumped together behind their protocol droid as they chattered loudly. At this point, it was as if the hive mind was not functioning properly, each one of them trying to relay the same message to the protocol droid as it tried making their words clear to the armed smuggler.

"Please fleshling... great Mandalorian, spare us. We do not have the means of protecting ourselves with our warriors defeated. We won't be able to raid other ships, so we will leave this sector and never come back. You have our word.".

"I would like to believe you, but honestly, I couldn't care less. You endangered my life, the life of my pets, my reputation as a smuggler, the life of an innocent civilian and those of many others before him. Hell, I don't even know how many you have killed to stock up the hoard i've seen in the cargo hold below, though I know one thing...".

Reaching into his pocket, he took down a fragmentation grenade and pressed the red button moments before tossing it over his shoulder as he stepped out of the cockpit and pressed the button for the cockpit door.

"...This hive deserves nothing but complete and utter eradication..".

As the door closed behind him, a loud bang resounded from inside of the cockpit as the grenade went off and undoubtedly killed all those left inside. Even if it didn't, they would soon be dead once Thresco blew the entire ship to hell by tampering with the engines. If he made sure the engines could not get rid of the heat build-up and had their fuel valves shut, it would only be a matter of minutes before the entire thing would go out in a blaze of glory. But before he did that, there was one more thing he had to take care of, probably the only thing left to do in the now corpse-invested Bartokk freighter.

 

[Thresco]

Taking the staircase leading into the cargo area, the Mandalorian started looking for anything that might be worth while. Finding whole loads of nothing at first, it was not long before he stumbled upon a pile of stripped corpses, some flayed of flesh and others just stripped naked, undoubtedly having their clothing sold somewhere. It made him wonder if these people were like the Bith that had been sent to impersonate him at Concordia, though in the end, it did not really matter. The Bith was still alive and the Bartokk had received what was coming to them. Opening a comm channel with Torgost, Thresco told the AI to release the ship and fly into the freighter's hangar. From there, the Bith and Chakaar would be able to help Thresco lift anything of value into the Jiriad Kadiilir before he would overload the ship and blow it back to hell. As the Jiriad Kadiilir entered the hangar, Thresco first dropped all the Bartokk corpses that were still inside after their failed raid out, not looking forward to smelling the pungent odor of a rotting insectoid. While Chakaar licked the blood off of the floor, much to the Bith's distaste, Thresco figured that it would save him some time on having to clean that mess up.

With the Jiriad Kadiilir in order, the Strill, the Bith and the Mandalorian loaded everything of value into the cargo hold. Finding various crates filled to the brink with Mandalorian iron. Rubbing his hands together, he knew just how much this would bring up on the black market, making the entire ordeal more or less worth it. Taking roughly a hundred kilograms of beskar ingots from the ship, there was something equally interesting on board of the ship. While he most likely would not have found it himself, Chakaar had found the rotting remains of a large worm-like creature, roughly seven meters in length in a corner of the massive cargo area of the freighter. It seemed to be what the pendant was made of, as the nodules seemed exactly like the strange core. More importantly, the entire spot the worm was laying in felt like a blank spot in the Force, which could only mean one thing. Harvesting the parts he needed for further studying, he watched as the Bith and Chakaar carried the last of the goods into the Jiriad. Setting a few charges in the engine room, Thresco too entered the ship and flew out of the freighter. As they were about to enter Hyperspace, they watched as the freighter blew into a million pieces behind them, mere moments before they jumped.

"Before I forget, what is your name?".

"My name is Duco Din.".

"Well Duco Din, you're a free man now. Be sure to keep it that way.".