Lazy Iblis
Dante stood shoulder to shoulder with the denizens of Coruscant inside one of their deep-travel lifts. They were heading down below, to somewhere on level ... something below fourteen-hundred. The numbers had become unimportant since the last vestiges of high culture had disappeared. Down here, the only illumination cast through transparisteel windows was artificial, and rusty cities made of dingy shacks built into the sides of the reactors blocked the view.
Not that it mattered much how far down the lift had taken him. Coruscant's underworld was notorious for being endless, and, as the stories went, once you passed the upper thousands you were down in the deep end, where not even the long arm of the law could fully reach.
That suited Dante fine. It wouldn't be his first scrape with lowlives, and the opportunity to explore was too good to pass up. He had told his manager above he'd be exploring Coruscant a bit, and the Barabel, high out of his mind on spice as always, had only demanded he be back before their shuttle to the Outer Rim left. This meant nearly a full day before departure, and Dante had, since his childhood, known exactly how he wanted to spend that kind of time off on Coruscant.
Coruscant's lower levels weren't exclusively infamous for their illicit activities. In the world of shockboxing, the sport's enthusiasts talked about the rings and casinos down in the lower hundreds, where legends like Rhido Grohmin and Jido Scutteler first forged their careers. The chance to follow in the footsteps of one's heroes had been a dream of Dante's since he first laid his eyes ona professional match back on Hetzal Prime. And a chance to visit those places came only once in a lifetime for an Outer Rim farm boy like himself, and he didn't want to miss it.
The lift came to a halt, finally, and Dante snapped back to the moment. In front of him, the two-dozen other occupants of the lift shuffled out into the streets.
Dante checked the small datacard he'd snagged from some infopoint on the way down and confirmed he was still headed in the right direction. The card lit up with a red line connecting his location to another one a few streets down on the same level. Satisfied, he stepped off the lift and into the underworld of Coruscant proper, where the thick smell of heavily recycled air hung heavy.
The walk took a few minutes, past sorry figures and even sorrier sights, but they didn't take away from the excitement once he arrived. Gold Sector. Its name flashed bright neon on a sign high up on the building, and a hologram of a Barabel with golden coins falling from his pockets glowed into the city-induced night right above the building. A few figures loitered around the entrance, and the booming synths of music boomed through the heavy-set durasteel double doors.
From the outside, little seemed to set it apart from the many other casino in the lower levels of Coruscant. Inside, however, there would be shockboxers, pro and amateur alike, from the galaxy over who'd come to drink and fight and tell stories of their greatest moments. A veritable shockboxer's dream. And, more importantly, here they could walk the same ground as the greatest legends of their sport.
Dante steeled himself with a deep breath. He'd stared bright-eyed at the entrance for what felt like a full minute. With the home of his heroes so close, he couldn't stay out here admiring it forever. He had to go inside.
Gold Sector has been bought out by a criminal syndicate after the previous owner, a legend himself in the shockboxing community, was forcibly ousted through a set of underhanded maneuvers by a criminal gang. With the change in ownership came also a change in clientele. Though Gold Sector remains one of the most well known and well-visited shockboxing rings and casinos, it has attracted a crowd of criminals and slavers who prey on the down-trodden and forgotten of Coruscant.
The criminal syndicate which has taken ownership of Gold Sector is an obscure gang of slavers going by the 909's. Despite the lack of a name they call themselves, they've been dubbed the 909ers by the denizens of Coruscant's undercity for the level they operate out of. Though they've been on the Alliance Marshal's radar, the 909ers have kept mostly quiet in the grander scheme of undercity crime, and have only earned themselves a small target on their backs. This has kept the Marshals off their trail, as more prolific groups made demands of their attention.
Recently, however, there have been rumors of more ... profane ends the 909ers serve, and with those rumors, a greater number of disappearances.
The criminal syndicate which has taken ownership of Gold Sector is an obscure gang of slavers going by the 909's. Despite the lack of a name they call themselves, they've been dubbed the 909ers by the denizens of Coruscant's undercity for the level they operate out of. Though they've been on the Alliance Marshal's radar, the 909ers have kept mostly quiet in the grander scheme of undercity crime, and have only earned themselves a small target on their backs. This has kept the Marshals off their trail, as more prolific groups made demands of their attention.
Recently, however, there have been rumors of more ... profane ends the 909ers serve, and with those rumors, a greater number of disappearances.
Valery Noble
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