Death Squad

[Lassiter]

There were many ways to hunt a quarry, but few of them — Sena had found — was as effective as going for someone close to whoever it was that you were hunting. The Ember had given the woman the good-to-go to truly get out there and find the man who referred to himself as the ‘Blood of Vahl’ and bring him back for proper re-education. The heresy had gone too far, if left unchecked there was sure to be repercussions and when that happened things could get ugly. It needed to end before that was allowed to happen.

While the self-proclaimed Blood of Vahl had proven hard to find, there was one of his allies, former or not, who had proven just a little bit easier. Which was to say, he was reachable whereas the heretic king was not. Finding this man, a [member="Salvor Arnex"], was still a hard task for even the best of the Ember’s trackers, but with time they had managed to triangulate an area in which they believed he was most likely to operate.

The clock was ticking, the leads were running cold, but here she was. The planet’s name was lost on her, but the scenery was not. The shuttle she had boarded soared between the dusty valleys and their golden brown edges. While Sena was no stranger to heat or fire, sand was still something that just irked her. You know what they say about it. Coarse, rough, gets everywhere. The shuttle touched down and Sena stepped out into the busy spaceport. Eyes glancing at the datapad containing the picture of her target.

He was here. She knew it. He had to be.

Sena took a few more steps deeper into the crowds, out onto the main street. It was time to find this man and bring his friends out into the light.

[member="Salvor Arnex"]

 

[Salvor Arnex]

[member="Lassiter"]

"...Eleven...Twelve...Thirteen." The Toydarian finished in thickly accented Huttese as Salvor looked on stone faced.
"You bring me thirteen gaffi sticks in less than one whole day. It would take any of my regular crew more than a month to rid my land of that many of those monsters." The Toydarian praised while Salvor continued to wait impassively.

"Credits now, I think." The alien said as he reached under the counter of his stand pulling out a stack of credits. "Two hundred for each stick was the deal, yes?" He continued on with a smile on his face oblvious to Salvor's attitude. Salvor scooped up the credits and put them in his pocket and left barely taking note of the Toydarian telling him to come back if he was ever looking for work.

The young yellow skinned Zabrak, Salvor Arnex headed through the throng of people that were always occupying the space port, with his pockets full of enough credits to take him almost anywhere. The problem now was having a place to go.

The shadow Dynasty was dead, the One Sith were gone, so too were the primeval, but there were options. He could head to Commenor and look for work amongst the first order, The Kathol Outback was an option and so were the Mandalorians, though both were not without risk, he had no idea how they would react if they knew he had been a part of the One Sith or had been at one time a major factor in the dynasty of shadow, seven hells, he could even head to the Silver Jedi and look for work.

Credits were easy to come by but he after these last few years was growing tired of constantly moving for the sake of having something to do and a place to sleep. He wanted to find a place to belong, a cause to commit his blade and his life to. Being 'The Wandering Warden' had left him even more jaded and cold than he had been, if that were even possible. He was more alone than he had been, well ever. Erebus company was no more, five-hundred men and women who had follwed him for over a year after the dynasty's collapse had finally left his service and went back to their families in the tingel arm on and near Eclipstica. He had even grown apart from the Ash Guard, his five most loyal soldiers. He hadn't had contact with them in weeks. He needed now to be alone, to go back to a life of simplicity, back before Keturah, before Romeo, before he lost his way.

He pushed his way through the crowd unaware of the fact that he was being hunted, lost in his own thought and indecison.

 

[Lassiter]

[member="Salvor Arnex"]

The redhead Vahla stepped through the busy city streets with her pad extended before her so that she could give the entire crowd an identifying glance. Not a lot of species had horns. That certainly helped with things. You’d think a man like that wouldn’t be all too hard to find, yet here Sena was with a pad in her hand rather than a knife as if she was following the other aspect of her heritage. The one that would sip drinks on Corellia, had it not been destroyed before she had to chance to ever see it in its full glory. She scoffed at the idea and set her sights on the crowds again when she spotted it. Not it, she spotted him. Golden skin and a look about him that seemed to match her image. She put the tablet into her satchel and approached him from the front. Gave him a quick smile as she passed and went on her way.

The smile instantly faded as she went out of sight. Lassiter spun on her heel and set on her way to follow him again. The crowd swept past them like a river running wild, but slowly the crowd would seem to… Gather around the man. It started with one man, and then another, a woman joined in until eventually a full circle had formed around him with a near perfect 1-meter radius between them and the man. They all slowed down to try and force the man into stopping as well. One by one they all turned around to face him with blank stares spread across their face like a toy that was out of batteries yet kept moving.

It wasn’t too far from the truth. The rest of the crowd around them began to stop and stare themselves, though not so much because they were obligated to do it but rather because it was a spectacle few had ever seen. Was it a flash mob? A prank?

No. It was Sena and her tricks.

“I.” Began one man.

“Have been.” Said another from behind Salvor.

“Looking.” A woman and her child followed it up with a voice as monotonous as the others.

“For you.” A rodian finished.

From the distance Sena smirked. This was the part of her job that she enjoyed the most and found the most pride in. The display continued.

​

"Take me.”
“To.”
“Romeo.”

“Sin.”​

"Now."

 

[Salvor Arnex]

[member="Lassiter"]

With each step the crowd around him grew more dense and impassable. Face after face passed by each as blank and indescernable as the last, predatory instinct, years of training, and a general paranoia made him able to latch onto some of those that he pushed past, a rodian, a couple holding hands, a redhead with a smile, a twi-lek and too many others.

If the crowd was dense before it was nothing compared to what it was now, it was as if the people around him were purposefully cutting him off and thats when he felt it. A deep sensation ran down his spine the same as if he had been dunked in ice water, the air around him crackled, hissed, and popped as it became alive suddenly and unbidden. It whispered and called to him, the thing that set him free, the tool that gave him liberation, being used by another in a way he could not...the force, it was here surrounding him the same as the now dozens of people who had encircled him.

The crowd around him seemed to all speak at once all asking for the same thing. Romeo Sin. Anger flared inside him rising like a monster barely able to be held back at the thought that once again Sin had intruded here in his life.

"Sin. Is dead." He told the people surrounding him.

 

[Lassiter]

“Liar.”
“We have seen you.”

“We have followed you.”​

“We know you used to work with him.”

Sena stood back in the shadows and watched as the man grew angry. While many would have feasted upon it she wouldn’t really say she found the idea all that tempting. It wasn’t her emotions that would have been used to fuel her, to use what someone else felt to power yourself was the cheap way of performing anything. With a sigh she broke off from the wall she was leaning against and approached the circle that had formed around her target. The streets were starting to clear, putting a distance between the crowds and the circle that surrounded Salvor. The woman approached the circle and stepped into it herself. She wasn’t usually one to get this close to someone, but she had to be there personally for this one, just in case the circle didn’t work.

The wind blew through her red hair. A pale hand grasped at her saber in case the man decided to get violent.

“If Romeo is dead, then where did he die?” Sena asked. “Because according to my sources he is alive and well.”

The voices all spoke up in unison.

​

“Tell us,”
“Tell. Us.”

“TELL US!”​

​

[member="Salvor Arnex"]​

 

[Salvor Arnex]

[member="Lassiter"]


“Liar.”
“We have seen you.”
“We have followed you.”
“We know you used to work with him.”


Salvor said nothing toward the accusations of the seemingly possessed people encircling him. Salvor was no liar, he had not seen Romeo in over a year, probably closer to two. Was the king truly dead? Salvor did not know but it had happened before and Salvor did not doubt that Romoes weaknesses would lead it to happen again.

After a moment of prolonged and profoundly preturbing silence, the crown opened just enough for a young woman to step inside. She was clearly not under the same affect as the others.


“If Romeo is dead, then where did he die?” She asked. “Because according to my sources he is alive and well.”

Salvor took a measured step closer to her with a predatory gleam in his eye. "Then ask them where to find Sin."

“Tell us,”
“Tell. Us.”
“TELL US!”
The crowd spoke as one.

Salvor ignored them and stared wordlessly into the eyes of the red-head.

 

[Lassiter]

And that redhead stared right back.

She took a step back from the man and let her hand hover over the saber on her belt. This could have gone either way, and quite frankly by the look of the man she wouldn’t doubt him being able to toss her around should she have given him the chance to take it there. It was always best to be prepared in these situations, and the mere fact that she had stepped into the circle, well, that wasn’t something she was quite sure of why she had done. Perhaps her devotion to her job made her feel like she had to, or maybe she had quite simply wanted to mix things up for a bit.

But one thing was for certain. Her fear was not to be shown.

“Well, Mister Arnex,” She began as she began to walk within their impromptu little ring of people. “You don’t mind if I call you that, do you?” Truthfully she didn’t care. “I would have asked them had it not been because of the simple fact that they are all. Dead.”

Sena turned around to face the man in full from a slightly bigger distance than before.

“Usually I would not be concerned with the thoughts and false hopes of the common man, but when rumors of a supposed savior brings division to my people I just can’t help but take note of it.” The girl continued circling and the people moved with her to allow more space. “I am sure you have heard of Eclisptica, but when heresy goes as far as declaring something a planet of the people; my people. Then we’ve got a huge fething problem.”

“Thing is, your friend is not a man who is easy to get a hold of. At least not when you work for the people that I work for.” Sena continued. “So, we looked into alternative ways of getting to him.”

“I guess you could say that is why I sought you out and why I am here.” She chuckled in contempt. “My employers and I figured, if I can’t give him the message to him personally, then maybe someone else can.”

“Someone like you.” She said as she finally stopped. “I only really see two ways that you can deliver it, and I think you will agree with me when I say you most likely prefer the first one.”

The woman continued circling again. “One, I can tell you what the message is and you relay it to him personally telling him to meet me. Or two,” She shrugged. “And this is my personal favorite, no offense intended towards you, of course…”

“... We send you as the message.” The fire in her eyes awoke, the whispers at the back of her mind subsiding for a brief moment of clarity. “So what will it be, Mister Arnex? Will you deliver the message or be the message?”

[member="Salvor Arnex"]

 

[Salvor Arnex]

[member="Lassiter"]


“I would have asked them had it not been because of the simple fact that they are all. Dead.”

And you will soon join them Salvor thought as she continued speaking. There was a swagger about this woman, there was no shortage of confidence to be sure but Salvor, the perceptive creature that he was could not help but catch a glimpse of her hesitancy, to catch the slightest wiff of fear as she stepped back from him, her hand hovering close to her lightsaber.

Salvor liked the fear of others; especially when he was the cause but today he took no pleasure in this woman's fear. Her's was not the kind of fear that most of his prey felt as he hunted them and it wasn't the fear that his opponents felt just before he struck them down. No, her's was something else, rooted more in herself than truly of him though he was a part of it. It was unsatisfactory and it bored him.

“So what will it be, Mister Arnex? Will you deliver the message or be the message?”

"You seek to intimidate me, girl?" Salvor asked sharply. "Romeo Sin is not my friend and your problems cause me no concern." He said as a matter-of-fact.

"If you seek to make an example of me, girl..." He used the word again to deride her. "Then go ahead, you will find it to be the last mistake you make."

 

[Lassiter]

[member="Salvor Arnex"]

“So what are you and Romeo then?” The girl looked positively annoyed. “So many resources to find you and you’re not even his friend? Are you serious?”

She didn’t buy it. She couldn’t buy it. Her superiors would not have bought it. No, it was too late at this point to just let him go without having acted on the favors both bought and called in to find this man. Sena unlatched her saber from her belt without flicking it on. Her free hand rose to claw at the air as if manipulating a marionette. Which wasn’t all that far from the truth. Two of the people surrounding her target entered the ring to grab the man by his arms while Sena approached him.

“Whether what you say is true or not, it truly pains me,” Not really. Not at all. “To do this, Mister Arnex.”

The woman flicked her saber on and continued her approach.

“Either way we play this I’ll be sending a message one way or the other.”

Sure, she could have indulged him with a response to this being her last mistake, but she was already full of those. It was back in the slave pits that she had been told something was her last mistake. Even back then, when she was sixteen, the one who had died over her last mistake was not Sena.

She saw nothing to indicate this last mistake would be the case either.