Don't touch my things. (Deborah Waller)

[Durgur Opoth]

What could Durgur say about his situation? He'd need time to answer that. Previously he'd been under the heel of a pirate crew, but then, he was free! Just like that, he saw a chance to leave, and he took it! But look at him now, he had been carrying nothing but junk around in his pack for the longest time, only to sell it to buy food and water. He was wearing some common clothing, a bit ragged from age, with short sleeves that showed off his athletic arms, as his soft shoes padded on the steel floor in the urban environment he was walking through. If Durgur were a lot smaller, he might look like quite the target.

But did Durgur despair? No, and the reaon was that he had possessions that would be invaluable to him. The first two were weapons, a vibroblade on his left hip, and three steel daggers strapped to his belt. The last possession was a a roll of papers he walked with in his right hand. What made him respected back on the pirate ship. Weapon schematics, and plenty of them. From simple daggers and slugthrowers to vibroblades. All Durgur had to do was learn where to look, and with enough scrap, he could sustain himself perfectly, maybe even open a shop like his father did. He just had to find out where to look...

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

The one thing that always passed through crime gangs and pirate crews and all manner of criminals was gossip. Like women in small towns who'd always talk of rumors and the like these types of people were no different. Any sort of news to keep conversations going and try to keep tensions at ease as they took their mind off things like failed missions or the drink getting to their heads. Gossip and news big and small always passed between them. And it was thanks to info like that the Star Striders had always looked to for "true news". They'd become aware of the man known as [member="Durgur Opoth"] and how he was once with a pirate crew before being freed from them. But what had interested them most was the idea of gaining his weapon schemeatics if it meant bolstering their aresenal and tat of their partners, the Red Ravens.

That day after tracking him down, some of the Striders were in local gear, waiting to spot him for themselves. Once they had the three of them, those that were present, had singaled to each other they'd found him. Sure enough he had a pack with what they could tell had the schemetics they were after. The men were a human, a chiss and a Aqulish. Each one had a blaster and a dagger ready.

They trailed behind Durger for a while, slowly coming closer to him with each turn he took. Finally they'd managed to get him in front of an alley where they pushed him in and surrounded him.

The human, acting as leader, drew his blaster and said "Okay, pal. Hand them over. The boss wants what you have in that pack."

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Taken completely off guard by the ambush, Durgur quickly darted his head back and forth to assess his situation. Outnumbered, and outgunned... In mere moments. To Durgur, it was the 'outgunned part that mattered to him. As far as he was concerned, he could take on three street thugs in a brawl, assuming they didn't have training like he did, but the ragged clothes on his back did very little to shield him from blaster fire.

"Alright, I don't want any trouble, but I'm warning you, it's just junk in here." Durgur bluffed, as he removed his pack, and dropped it at his own feet. In truth, he had plenty to lose in that pack, food, water, and his schematics! If they took this pack from him, Durgur may very well perish without any way to make a living. He kept his hands up in feigned surrender, and he had to hope that this goon was stupid enough to come over and pick the pack up himself, putting him within Durgur's reach

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

Seeing where the bag was the human didn't think on it. He only looked to the others and nodded before making for the bag himself. Of course he was holding the blaster awkwardly because he was trying to make sure eveything didn't fall out. He knew if their boss found out they left anything it would be hell to pay. He just tried to keep it iamed on [member="Durgur Opoth"] while he was busy trying to gather everything. His attention, of course, wasn't too focused on one or the other.

 

[Durgur Opoth]

That was a mistake.

When the human thug was within reach, Durgur seized him! Grabbing and wrenching the human's wrist, causing him to drop his blaster, then Durgur pulled him closer and wrapped his arm around the human's neck in a headlock, then backed himself up to a wall. With the human's blaster on the ground, Durgur reached for his own slug thrower pistol at his side, and pulled it out aiming it at the other two goons, refocusing his aim on whoever moved so much as an inch closer to his pack. The human he now had head locked was thankfully not much of a brawler, so he couldn't offer too much resistance.

"I don't know what it is you want from me." Durgur began. "But I don't think its worth your lives. Walk away." Durgur hoped they listened, he could try shooting them and the human, but if they had friends, Durgur could end up in even worse trouble than this ambush, assuming that he got out of it alive, for all he knew, that human's friends may gun them both down without hesitation.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

The others had drawn weapons by the time [member="Durgur Opoth"] had wrapped his arm around the human. Still they couldn't make a move without risking hurting thier friend. The Star Striders were a small group, which meant they looked out for each other afterall. It seemed everyone was at an impass, especially when Opoth had given his threat to them.

The human, trying to talk through Opoth's grip, said "Don't belive him, guys. He shoots me and then he's dead, you know that."

The other two looked worried before the aquilish said something, the chiss responding "Alright." He looked back to the human and said "Hang on, Flea. I'm calling the boss. She'll sort this out."

Pulling out a comm the chiss walked to the side, away from earshot. The Aquilish kept his blaster on the two while he talked. Flea, the human, watched as the chiss spoke before trying to look back to Opoth. He chukled and said "Now you've done it. You think you're tought, man? You've got no idea. The boss is way worse when you get her upset."

After that the chiss returned and said to Opoth "Okay, you. Boss said she wants you to meet with her at the lot just down the block. We'll go in front while you can hold onto the blaster. But we keep one on you. That way no one tries anything. Boss wants it to be fair after all. And she says it's better to talk face-to-face. You suqare with that?"

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Durgur, not appreciating this 'Flea's' bravado, tightened his arm around his neck "You've already upset me." Durgur reminded him. When the chiss returned and offered his terms, Durgur took a moment to think. Durgur had very little choice in the situation, he assumed that they were simply petty thieves, and that they'd give up at the first sign of difficulty, apparently not. Durgur ran the risk of of bringing down the force of a group he knew nothing about if he simply escaped the situation, assuming he could.

Durgur released his headlock on the human, and pushed him forward, keeping his pistol trained at the back of Flea's head. "Well, go on then." He urged then to move on, so he could meet this boss of theirs.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

With Fela's nod to get moving the chiss and Aqulish began to move. They lead [member="Durgur Opoth"] down to the end of the ally they'd been in before going down one of the lesser crowded streets. It would save the trouble for Opoth not to be spotted with a gun to a human's back. Obviously the authories wouldn't take kindly to such a scene. Thankfully not enough people were around to notice. After that they brought him across one street to a large emtpy lot, orginally used for speeder parking. There was a speeder parked there already with two others waiting inside. One was another human, but the other was the one who Opoth would realize was the boss of the little gang.

She wore a red shirt and matching pants, exposing her belly and her lower back. Around her arms she had a holster that carried two blasters, like a police officers. She was dark skinned with large raven hair in an afro style. Her deep brown eyes looked to Opoth when she saw him with a gun to her man's head.

Standing up from the speeder she said "I take it you're the one who's been giving my boys a hard time. Hard to belive they can't even deal with one simple guy like you." The chiss tried to speak up but she shot him down with a quick "Save it. I'll deal with you all later."

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Durgur didn't want to move his pistol away from Flea, now that he was even more outnumbered. Durgur's earlier concern about these thugs not just being petty thieves was reinforced by what their boss said, it sounded like they were sent for him specifically. He's picked up his pack again before getting there, not keen on giving those thugs another chance to grab at it. "They tried to steal from me, why wouldn't I give them a hard time?" It's true that Durgur's schematics were valuable enough for someone to want to steal them. But how did they know about it? It seemed as if that his old life wasn't completely over, not just yet.

"I don't see any real reason for this situation to go on any longer, I'd like to just take my leave." Durgur emphasized by prodding the back of Flea's head. In truth, Durgur was hesitant to just kill the man, especially for something as petty as theft, even if that theft could leave Durgur without a livelihood. But in his current situation, violence seemed to be the only leverage he had.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

For a former slave he was tough. Deborah could see it. And why not? After enduring pirate treatment for so long you'd have to be to come out strong enough to keep going after that enduring trial of life. She admired that in him, but this was still a matter of business. Her other human member pointed a blaster rifle at [member="Durgur Opoth"] while she said "Can't do that. Sorry. Thing is we want those schematics you have. Word from the grape vine is your a pretty decent weaponsmith. We figure we have gear based on your work and we'd put a little more teeth in our mouths."

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Seeing the other human take out a blaster, Durgur's grip on his own pistol visibly tightened. Was this always to be his life? Violence and brutality all for for material gain? "Is there really nothing I can say to convince you otherwise?" Back on the pirate ship, Durgur never got a chance to resolve issues with reason, and now that he had the chance to try, it seemed useless. He may just have to give up his schematics, but then what? How long would his food last him? He'd have to go back to being a pit dog, and he hated that idea.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

Thinking on this for a minute Deborah examined the Zebrak. He seemed fit enough. And being s slave ment he had strength and possibly skill. There was oppertunity in this, perhaps where her men would come out alive and they'd not leave emtpy handed. "Tell you what, let's make it more interesting. What say we duke it out. You and me, right here. I'll tell my men to fall back and you and I can settle things on our own. I win, we take the schemetics. You win, we walk away with nothing an call it a day. Sound fair?"

[member="Durgur Opoth"]

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Durgur thought about it, still holding the gun to Flea's head. He couldn't help but feel that this was a jab at his other role with the pirate crew. If it wasn't the weapon smith they wanted, it was the pit dog. But, with this option, in the case that he won, he wouldn't have to fight again after this, at least not as a pit dog. Lowering the gun from the human's head, he sighed and looked at their boss. "Fine, I accept." Durgur dropped his gun to the ground, as well as his daggers and vibrosword. He could only hope that they kept to their word, and at the very least didn't attack him when he was vulnerable.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

As soon as he dropped his weapon Flea and the others hurried over to where Deborah stood. At first they expected her to turn coat and order them to open fire on [member="Durgur Opoth"] but instead she just smirked at her soon-to-be fighter and said "Start walking, boys. I'll make it back to the ship after this is over." She could see they were all hesitant to leave before she ordered "Move it!" making them hurry off. After that she looked back to Opoth and said "Now that we're all alone, give me a second to get ready."

The first thing Deborah removed was the blaster holster around her body. She dropped it into the speeder they men had left before before turning around to make sure Opoth didn't reach for his weapon at any point. Next she began to unzipper her jacket, making it almost seem as if she was going to strip in front of te zebrak. Though in reality she had an undershirt on which kept her chest covered. When she threw it off, however, the long sleeve of the jacket had in fact been hiding a key feature to the woman: her right arm was completely cybernetic. Aside from her fit psyhical features that was the one thing that stood out so greatly about her. She even looked at Opoth, knowing he'd take note, before joking ask "See something you like?"

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Durgur always hated when an opponent taunted him, it didn't particularly irritate him, years within the company of pirates and not being allowed to so much as sass them might have made him the most patient Zabrak in the galaxy. No, the truth was, Durgur was never clever enough to come up with a comeback whenever someone taunted him, giving him a reputation for being a serious fighter. So when the older woman decided to flaunt at him, Durgur was left without any retort. Instead, he took a deep breath, and assumed his martial stance. "No games, let's get this over with." Zabrak martial arts were highly physical, lacking the philosophy or spiritualality other martial arts came with, which is appropriate, seeing as Zabrak martial arts was developed to fend off the fierce beasts of Iridonia.

Zabrak almost never fought animals, but his techniques worked just the same. Durgur had been trained by his father from a young age, like all young native Zabrak were, and even after his father died, and Durgur was taken to the pirates, he never stopped fighting. His job as a pit dog made sure of that, not a week went by without him having to use what his father taught him to thrash some other brawler, often mercilessly. He spent three years doing that, practicing his art, this woman was no doubt more experienced overall, along with with her prosthetic arm, this would no doubt be a harrowing fight.

Possibly even comparable to the time Durgur had to fight a Mandalorian, he ended up tasting blood for a week after that fight.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

She shrugged and said "If you say so." before getting into a martial stance herself. Deborah had been trained by the military before her time as a criminal, something not many knew about. Serving in the Republic forces was a alot harder then some would think. True it wasn't the same as the Mandolorians, those who were considered warriors from birth, but it was still tough as nails training that she endure in order to become as skilled a fighter as she was.

She was ready, both feet apart with one hand in front and the other back. She advanced towards him slowly before circling, trying to get a sense of his fighting style and stance. After that she started with a jab to the face followed by an attempted elbow to the gut and then finishing with a possible knee to the stomach.

[member="Durgur Opoth"]

 

[Durgur Opoth]

Durgur blocked the jab to his face with his arms, and back stepped away from the elbow. He attempted a low sweep to knock her onto the floor, he wanted an advantage as soon as possible, he didn't like the idea of getting hit with that prosthetic arm of hers.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

His sweep managed to knock her on her back but Deborah had taken advantage of this; as her training taught her. As soon as she hit the ground she rolled to her front and swept her leg out, taking the legs out from under [member="Durgur Opoth"] in the process. Once he was down she tried jumping on him and pinning him down with her robotic arm grabbing his wrist.

 

[Durgur Opoth]

That was bad, if that arm got a hold of him, he wasn't sure he could escape. He rolled to the side before she could jump on him, and jumped to his feet. He lashed out with a kick aimed at her side, if that connected, he'd attempt a second kick aimed for her stomach.

[member="Deborah Waller"]

 

[Blair]

Deborah had missed her chance but had managed to grab his leg when he attempted to kick her. She pushed back before standing up and trying to deliver a punch to the chest to force him back. After that she tried another attempt and forcing him down with a kick to the shin, followed by another to the face. Right now her major advantage was her cyber arm, and she had recently taught herself how to better us e it to her advantage. in fights like these.

[member="Durgur Opoth"]