Men of Constant Sorrow

[Zef Halo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08e9k-c91E8​

You would think how the feth does one of the best slicers get his arse in jail on a planet that smelled like bantha poodoo anywhere you went. Feth, you would think how the feth does such a planet of muddy grazing fields and no hills, and farmers even have a jail.

And feth, you would think how the feth did this fethin' jail had a brigade of the toughest fethin' farmers armed to the teeth guarding it as if their life depended on it.

The last question ultimately led to the pressing matters of repeating blasters tearing holes next to Zef's position. His only cover - the corpse of one of the guardsmen and these karkin' farmers had no remorse for the body of their colleague. Hell, it even drove them madder.

Sweat breaking on his forehead, free falling down his brow and teeth grinding to dust from the physical strain of holding the cover.

"Would ya fethin' unlock it already?" He meant the key he'd tossed in his old friend's cell.

[member="Daro Tarsi"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

There was one thing that Daro knew from the very first moment he laid eyes upon Zef Halo.

He had one hell of an ugly mug.

Never thought it would be a welcome one to wake up to, but that's what sitting in your own filth for the past week would do to a man. "Hello to you too." Tarsi retorted while rubbing his forehead a bit, that key had knocked him straight in the face and then some. "Sounds like you brought the entire neighborhood with you." He peered over Zef's shoulder and then dropped down to the ground.

"Feth. Those bastards know how to aim-"

Daro fumbled with the keys and then the ping ran through the hallway- door open, Daro, crouching and crawling, pulled himself up next to Zef. Sneaking a little peek over the turned over body. There were a lot of 'em.

"Alright- so. What's the plan?"

A lazy eye over at Zef.

"......you got a plan, right?"

 

[Zef Halo]

He glared dully at his ol' pal as he exited the cell almost nonchalantly and already firing shots of sarcasm. Meanwhile, the firing kept shredding the body to the point where Zef felt blood trickle down his hand. Not his blood but the cover's. The karking thing really was getting shredded to bits. Soon the cover would be as good as paper.

"Hell yeah, they do. Karkin' farmers in the middle of nowhere shooting as good as fethin' Mandalorians." Zef grumbled but at the mention of a plan, he let out a wide smirk hinting more trouble.

" 'f course, I've got a plan-" He began his lie but a dreadfully familiar sound of metal bouncing on metal sent a chill down his spine interrupting him. "Hold this!" The former Mandalorian dropped the body towards the slicer and hurled himself forward grabbing the orb of destruction that was the thermal detonator and hurling it towards the two scoundrels' backs right into a wall.

Suddenly - a gaping hole to run from.

"There's your plan, Tarsi. Now fethin' run, you old as dirt bastard."

[member="Daro Tarsi"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Feth I am supposed to do with this?!" Daro exclaimed as the corpse was thrown into his arms unceremoniously. Blood over his arms, in his gorram nose as it spurted against his face, ugh. "I am regretting using my only holo-call to call you, you know??" He shouted over his shoulder as he tried to keep the body propped up between himself and those fething hicks with anger issues.

They were already pressing-

BOOM.

The explosion triggered and took out part of the wall behind them, the shockwave sending pieces of duracrete over his shoulder right into the advancing farmers with military-grade weaponry, which was basically Daro's call to run.

Zef didn't need to tell him.

Mostly because while he was trying to tell him Daro was already running past him and through the wall. "Ya coming or what?" He'd shout, but that didn't prevent him from keeping up his rushed jog. As Zef came out, a hand yanked him right back against the adjacent wall where a disheveled Daro was crouching and quickly pushed his finger to his lips in the universal sign of shut the feth up.

His old friend probably wanted to run, but Tarsi's grip on his shoulder was surprisingly tight and fixed.

It didn't take long for about three or four farmers to rush out about two minutes later and running down the hill towards the nearby settlement.

"Alright..." Daro sniffed. "You bring that whiskey flask I asked about?"

 

[Zef Halo]

"I should've let ya rot in that piss pot of a jail you got yourself into then." Zef was shouting through the cacophony of blaster fire and debris falling from the destabilized structure of the jail. He was unsure whether Daro heard him, the man wasn't running, he was fethin' flying at low altitude.

How the hell is he still that karkin' fast?

An unnatural strong hand pulled him to the side right as he crossed the threshold of the new found hole in the wall. The scoundrel slammed his body to the wall like glue. Panting, he looked at the other old scoundrel who had pulled him. At the man's sign, Zef ceased his breathing till the group of mad hicks passed by. He swore he heard them grumble monkey sounds. No surprises.

Hands on his knees from the recent sprint, he shoved away the excessive hair from his eyes and raised an eyebrow at Daro's question.

"F...Flask? Oh, right." The smuggler materialized an ancient flask from the inner pocket of his space leather jacket. It was much more lighter than when he departed towards this planet.

"It was a darn long flight." He shrugged as he handed the slicer the flask.

[member="Daro Tarsi"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Ask an old man to escape jail and he find himself wings.

Especially if there was a drink at the end of the running.

Once the flask was in hand something deflated in Daro and he slumped heavily against the wall, arse in the grass and head leaning against the duracrete. Zef would notice it- the shaking in the hands, twitching of the neck muscles, they were the universal signs. The moment Tarsi tipped over the flask and let the whiskey pour into his welcoming mouth it began to cease. He gulped it down like it was water, rather than burning bright amber that could scorch a man's throat clean.

But then... at some point there wasn't much left to scorch, was there?

Screwing it shut Daro noticed the look Zef gave him. "Feth ya looking at, old boy, been without a drink for a week." He pocketed the flask though, nice little thing and as far as Tarsi was concerned Halo still owed him for sipping from his whiskey.

Only after that did the old man take a moment to really look at Zef.

The old lines, crevices of meat where first it had been all fresh-looking blushing youngster. Years had done both of them a number. "Still look like a bantha's arse, eh? Let's go." Rather than... leave the prison behind, Daro walked right back into it. He stopped at the ruined corpse of the farmer-slash-guard, picking up the ion blaster resting next to him. It felt odd in his hand and he passed it over to Zef with a light throw. "Always been better with that shet than me."

 

[Zef Halo]

Alcoholism. Daro's biggest weakness, it never faded away over time. The man was a heavy drinker since their younger days. Some things never change. He wondered whether he was one either. Zef certainly was a drinker but the shaking hands, the blurred vision and all these symptoms never caught up to him the way they crept up to ol' Daro Tarsi. Maybe if it did, he'd finally be able to drown the sorrow of a life time.

Maybe Daro found solace in it. Contradictory as may it sound, maybe he found the life saving hook in ethanol.

"A week and you still smell like fermentation, you ol' crook." Zef pointed out. The man's smell of alcohol completely replaced the smell of poodoo the whole planet smelled of.

He grabbed the ion blaster weighing it in his hand before replying with a crooked smirk: "A bantha's arse's still better than what you've got for a fethin' face."

"The Bolt ain't too far from here. Sadly I ain't got a repulsorchair for your sot arse so you gotta walk." Zef pulled himself away from the comfort of the wall and led the way.

"Now, how the kark did you manage to end up in jail here?"

[member="Daro Tarsi"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Don't hate the playa', hate the game, brother." Daro murmured softly as he fidgeted around a particular panel a few feet off the carnage. It stuck out as a sore thumb, if you knew what to look for and if there was anything Daro knew what to look for it would be tech (well, that and alcohol, but that was another question entirely). "Ya been skating through life with that one time you get yourself laid." He snarked right back, while his thumbs worked just underneath the lid of the panel and jimmied it open.

It was clear Daro wasn't going anywhere yet.

"Skinny zeltron doxy, right?" That made him snort. First time Zef mighty Halo got himself laid and the lady went running for the hills soon after that. "She also left ya immediately after that- I still get HoloNet calls from her every so often, ya know."

He hadn't seen his old friend in two decades give or take, but Zef Halo had always been the dependable sort. Always ready to drop everything to help a friend out (and bring some whiskey with), finally he managed to reconnect the two wires with a piece of coin jammed into it. This immediately send a surge through their security systems and a door hissed open right next to Zef. Not the one they would be taking for an escape, but Daro didn't get himself caught to immediately escape without even his hat in tow.

His hat.

 

[Zef Halo]

With his typical grumpy face on, Zef watched in irritation what Daro was doing. Whatever the kark he was doing on one random arsed panel, the scoundrel w-

"That wasn't the first time and you know it." His ears boiled as he shoved a threatening finger at his friend. "And she didn't leave me - I did." Zef stated almost proudly before realizing his childish behavior wasn't really appropriate and in turn turned gravely silent as Daro took out a friggin' hat out of a panel.

He'd left behind a family, a woman and a child needing him. The event haunted him even now after so many years, it bit him back when he met his daughter and her fist. Even after that and after his kid had her own kid, Zef still couldn't face Yula. Perhaps that should change.

Maybe it was high time he stopped being a ramblin' man but a leopard can't change its spots.

"A fethin' hat, are you karkin' with me, Daro? We've wasted enough time, they ain't gonn' be wanderin' round all day like stupid. Let's go." Zef said before pulling the man by his shirt and leading him away. "Why the heck are you in prison in the middle of nowhere? Last I heard you paid your debts."

[member="Daro Tarsi"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Mmhm, sure, sure. I will be sure to tell 'er that next visit." Shet-eating grin grew larger when Zef started pulling him away from the panel. "Will ya relax? After what I did they will be running ragged for the next couple'a hours still."

They would have to.

The reason why they had been so insistent to catch them in the first place wasn't cus of what he had done to them.

It's cus of what Daro had done to their boss. See, they were on Klatooine right now, and this small bolt hole annex prison was owned by one Demo the Hutt. Yes, that Demo the Hutt. If there was one thing that Zef Halo would know about Daro... it's that he hated the Hutts. A passion. There was a fire in his eyes every time that he karked one over and there was little mercy in his heart for 'em. In their younger years Daro had grown more and more elaborate in his methods to feth with them.

It usually didn't end well for them.

He petted him on the shoulder and detached himself with easy, before slipping into the 'evidence' room.

More like armory room of booty though.

This place served as a particular thing- if the Klatooine citizens ever got tired of Demo, he'd hole himself up here with his treasures, guns and armament, wait for a ship to come and lift him up. "I am supposed to be picked up by the Hutt in about six hours, so they will do their level best to find me before that." Otherwise it would be their heads. But right now Daro was only concerned about his head and what was supposed to be resting on top of it.

There it was.

Daro quickly snatched up his hat- it was distinctly feminine in nature and an inseparable companion of Tarsi since the day Zef and him had got to know each other. "Not just a hat, Zef." Daro murmured, stroking the textile with a protective streak. If anyone had figured out that the whole 'stole it in a boutique and it's a lucky charm'-story wasn't the whole story it would be Zef.

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef felt the urge to smack his friend's face at his comment regarding Yula but that impatient fire of youth was gone and so was his reasoning. What was the point that Zef was trying to prove? He'd tossed a woman in love bearing their child to the side leaving her to the same fate she hoped he would save her from. The heroic scoundrel coming to take her away.

Sadly, tales were tales. Reality was different and it hurt like a queen. He wondered if [member="Joza Perl"] or Yula ever forgave him completely within their hearts despite what they might have said.

"Of course, that hat." The smuggler washed away his dark thoughts by lighting up a cigarette. Zef never was much of a technophile. Meanwhile, beneath the layers of dirty and raggedy nature of Daro lied a man who possessed more than excellence in the sphere of technology. Sometimes it scared him how much could be achieved with something more than a gun and a smile.

A heavy blaster pistol caught his eye and Halo's hands were on it immediately. He weighed the new gun in his hand. Thing packed a kick by the looks of it. Reminded him of the wretched Mandalorian rippers. If they were bound to escape the lunatic hicks, Zef needed a tough puncher.

"And of course - a Hutt you're messing with." This...vendetta went back to their youth when he had first met young Daro Tarsi. Far back in a troubling time where their hairs weren't graying, their skin wasn't cracking and the colorfulness of their eyes was not fading away. It seemed so awfully long ago. Even then on the streets of Nar Shaddaa with no back behind him dared defying the Hutts. For a man who clearly was known for being quick footed in flight, Daro Tarsi sure demonstrated the heart of a lion or the mind of a mad man or a combination of both. Zef explained it to his own self that without being a risky player in the Underworld you either died young or remained someone's errand boy for life.

A grave memory passed through his mind while digging through the nostalgia.

"You..." Zef's features darkened. "This better...You have better not called me to pull a fethin' Tula here...right? You karkin' bastard!" It wasn't fear in Zef's voice but rather disbelief.

He should have known. Zef should've fethin' remembered but his old farted brain refused to. The karkin' bastard that Daro Tarsi was had done the same exact thing a fethin' lifetime ago. Back when Zef's gunslinging skills were gaining a rep, Daro had been 'caught' by another Hutt. Little did anyone but Daro know it was freaking ploy. The little, back then, chit had deliberately turned himself in to some bounty hunters. Fethin' Tula, the arrogant feth he was, came right over to get his bounty for whatever illogical reason that was. Show off his fethin' new warship or somethin' stupid like that. Hours before Tula's arrival, Zef had been breaking the damn slicer from custody of the bounty hunters with a few mercs on his side only to find out they weren't extracting him.

They were fethin' springing a trap, all part of Daro's plan to get close to Tula. Acting as the hunters, the freaking ragtag band of desperate for credits mercs, a bewildered Zef and a grinning Daro took the freaking Hutt down on his own bridge on his own frigate before blasting their way out of it.

Back then they were young and with a bunch of mercs too.

Now?

"You are a mad motherkarker, Daro Tarsi."

Zef was one to talk.

[member="Daro Tarsi"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

Daro glanced over his shoulder towards Zef as he brought up Tula.

The smirk was covered quickly by the collar of his coat being put on, but Zef would have seen enough to confirm his worst fears. This was exactly like Tula and now both of them were in on it. "Never claimed to have met ya ma, Zef, no need to pile up dat much praise." The snark continued, but behind it was an element of... trepidation. It wasn't fear. Daro had left simple things like fear behind at an ajar window. No, it was adrenaline, excitement and just a little bit of concern.

Because while Tarsi might have had the heart of a madman?

He did realize they weren't in the same class they once were.

His shaking hands (steady now, but how long would that last?) and Zef's fading eyes. "We will be fine." Daro suddenly said, voice coarse and rough, cracking at the seams. "We have some time, I will be turning this place into a trap, once it... closes? They will die." That was the one thing that Daro had no flexibility with. Zef knew. Hutts and those that ran with them? They died. One by one. There was no mercy there, no quarter given, in his eyes they had made their choice the moment they linked arms with that filth. It was one of the only times that Halo ever saw darkness behind Daro's eyes. One time it had almost turned them against one another, but that was a long time ago.

They knew each other's boundaries now.

"Go see if ya can put something over dat hole ya made. Don't put it up immediately-" They still wanted to lure those hicks back in, before killing them. "But better be prepared."

 

[Zef Halo]

Zef brought his palm to his face with a sigh and a shake of the head. He was getting too old for this chit. No- scratch that. He was too old for this chit. His disbelief that Daro was pulling this kind of move at his current situation both brought down on his shoulders the burden of age and the wonder if Daro had completely lost it. He never was a really sane person to begin with according to Zef. No slicer was.

Without a word, the smuggler moved towards the gaping hole and stood thinking with his arms crossed.

"Yeah, I don't think I can do anything with this." He kicked a larger pebble while looking around the piss poor jail. "I will see if they have anything left in the guard's room."

Zef ventured forth towards the guard room not too far from Daro's ex-cell. There oughta be something more...well...something that goes boom?

"Never understood why you've always been hellbent 'gainst the Hutts." He shouted out from down the guards room as he inspected it making sure his friend heard him. "But I ain't sure if I'd ever get an answer seeing I'd probably be dead soon."

"So what's your plan, Daro Tarsi? Slice their datapads to death?" Zef scoffed.

[member="Daro Tarsi"]​

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"...something like that." Daro murmured as he bend over, collecting their blasters as best as he could, then their datapads, followed by other pieces of electronic equipment they had on their person. They were all pushed together in separate piles- not sorted by size nor their origin though. In fact, a layman wouldn't see any sort of order or system to the piles he was making.

But his eye was shining bright as it studied the various pieces of hardware, before sorting them.

That would tell Zef all he needed to know about what Tarsi was doing.

"As for the Hutts-" He straightened his back, groaning as he tried to tried to straighten out completely and feeling his bones hurting under the shift. This had been easier about three decades back for the both of them. "-ain't enough they slimy slugs enslaving and sheting all over da place?" It wasn't, of course. Daro was far more pragmatic than that and Zef knew that.

Experienced it first-hand.

He started slowly distributing the gathered-up piles at the various entry points.

"How's da hole coming, eh?"

 

[Zef Halo]

"I've tried arguing with you 'bout that death sentence on all Hutts you got, but it ain't never got anywhere." Zef muttered through grinded teeth as he pulled a large as a bantha crate. Thing was heavy as heck, no wonder - it was full with arms and surprisingly some were quite modern.

He was able to bring the massive durasteel crate back to where the hole was along with ol' Daro nearby rigging things. Zef had seen him at work before, the man wasn't just a slicer. He'd learned a few tricks here and there, very practical tricks. Last time he'd seen something similar was when he considered himself a Mandalorian. The bucketheads sure knew how to make a weapon out of anything.

"Fethin' finally." Zef slammed open the crate to reveal the arsenal beneath it. "Look at this chit, someone's been smugglin' to these hicks some good stuff. For what reason would you arm a backwater jail guards with this." He grabbed a long heavy rifle and shook it. "That's Alliance." Dropping it back in the crate, he pulled another gun. "Sith-Imperial standard this one." Once more another gun arrived in his hand. "Silver Jedi. All of 'em with no codes, standard black market trading."

"Not surprising really." Zef continued. "Black markets will never die but why such good weapons get smuggled to a prison on fethin' Klatooine is beyond me. You sure there ain't nothin' more about the Hutts deal here? Or you just being an ass again and not tellin' me the whole damn thing."

The scoundrel didn't give Daro a glance as he unloaded the goods out and picked the now lighter but still thick durasteel crate and set it up leaning against the wall next to the hole.

"Think this can fit the hole and I will find something to keep it attached to the ground so they don't end up just pushin' the damn thing with a nudge." Zef explained to himself as he started wandering around for something useful.


[member="Daro Tarsi"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

"Oh."

Daro glanced over to the contents of the crate, before shrugging. "S'far as I know the Hutt has some connect with the Empire, smuggles 'em deeper into old Silvers territory to fund Pro-Imperial uprisings before the Sith come 'round." Which Daro didn't have any real problems with- in fact, it was smart as feth. Make sure that by the time you get around expanding here, that there was already a weaponized element you could use as a cudgel against your Jedi-aligned enemies.

Why make the news with images of you burning down poor people.

When you could have the same citizens you are trying to 'liberate' do your work for ya?

It was all brought with such casualness that Zef might have even missed that Daro was basically saying they were karking with the Sith Empire's expansion efforts in the Tingel Arm through a round-about-way. Mostly because that wasn't Daro's goal.

He would have done this even if the Hutt was aligned with the League of Voss.

"Aight, I rigged their gear- we will take out the hicks with some blaster bolts, drag 'em in, then just settle in to wait." Daro clued Zef in while rummaging around the former contents of the crate. Oh, there were a few detonators there. That made things just a little bit more easy. His eyes were already shinning bright with that quality his friend knew. It was an idea that came around and it was one that would most likely begin and end with a big boom.

Hehehe.

Daro couldn't help but chuckle at the mental sight of it.

 

[Zef Halo]

"That's a fat Hutt right there." Zef acknowledged his friend's words. The slug Daro was targeting wasn't random at all. He was fat i.e rich as heck. Probably had to be one of the bigger Hutt crime lords out there. Halo probably would know him if he asked for his name but he didn't want to. Better not fethin' know who they were trying to assassinate.

The smuggler felt a signature grin shining at him and his eyes looked at the source. His friend had found a stack of detonators. The grin told it all.

"Ugh." Zef shook his head but a familiar noise of starship engines raised his head. "I think this just put a dent to your plans." He pointed through a small gap in the wall where a shuttle was maneuvering to land.

"If these hicks have told him you're out - you bet that shuttle's going to be full of all sorts of hunters." The smuggler stated, before he turned from the gap to Daro. "It's still not late to karkin' get outta this place."

A moment of silence.

"But I am sure that ain't on the table for ya, so get your ass up there on overwatch, I will find cover closer to the gap. We'll hit 'em from two sides. Set those dets first and let's do this karkin' chit you got me into. Again."


[member="Daro Tarsi"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Zef Halo"]

He looked over his shoulder and his eye suddenly burned bright red.

The cyborg.

That would have reminded Zef of the old days, the brutal ones, the reminder that the thick-set jolly ol' man next to him had a history and it wasn't a pleasant one. His expression grew dark as, indeed, for a singular moment before Daro shrugged. The grin returned as the darkness was wiped away- Zef could breathe easily for now. "Gotta 'ave a plan for it to be mucked up, ol' boi." Now that would get his blood pumping. He had never enjoyed the more free-wheeling aspects of his ventures.

One more wink and then he went to work.

It was fast, rushy, but all in all it was a good job- mostly because making something go boom wasn't ever truly challenging.

Everything in the Galaxy moved towards annihilation and chaos, that was simply the way things were, the actual difficult thing was to try an' stall that as long as possible. Instead he was coaxing it along to create a big boom and make it fast.

"Aight, gonna go upstairs, charges set-" He threw the remote at Zef. "-dun lemme down, Zeflo."

 

[Zef Halo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWo__6Xn6Qs​

Every men had a beast within kept under the control of his humanity. A primal insanity befitting rabid predators. Some men lived to satisfy the needs of the monster that lived inside them, some men lived to see it chained under complete control. But when the chains break and all hell breaks loose, most are nothing more than a wildfire of derangement seeking to obliterate everything in their path. Others, the minority, are nothing like a wildfire. They were a tempest from the heavens themselves sent down to bring chaos that they believed was justified after the insanity faded away.

Daro was, unfortunately for Zef, the latter.

While an old friend of his and quite sure he knew more about him than most people that knew Tarsi, the scoundrel still believed there was much more to the man. He was like a pond, its depth unknown until you step on to it and Daro's pond could certainly drown you. Zef had learned that over a long period of time but he always compared it to their different card playing styles. The smuggler was a man of luck and bluff, Daro Tarsi on the other hand - he knew your cards before the dealer dealt them. It's a scary thought even to those on his side.

Back to reality, the hicks seemed to be moving back towards the prison with the classical barge with a Hutt on it following them. Zef could only assume the Hutt's passengers on the shuttle were already on the move. It was hard for the hicks to realize that the two fugitives had remained in the prison, but definitely not hard for the Hutt.

"If I do - we'll both be dead. And that ain't on my cards today." Zef gave him a cheeky smirk but remained well aware of their situation. Luck and bluff.

He pushed a few more empty crates and boxes or rubble from around to set up covers...for the enemy. Don't freak out. The moment the idiots get pinned at the choke point they'd either stay out of the jail and risk the wrath of the Hutt or they will push in towards the cover Zef had built for them.

And Daro's booby traps.

The former Mandalorian had inspected the floor - the thing wasn't thick. Heck, it was even rather thin. The dets looked strong enough to bring the floor down and everything on it as well. Then you get a hole that's leading to nowhere...and completely trapped in two scoundrels.

Luck and bluff.

Zef expected whatever hunters were brought to find their new entrances but being from inside they could react before they got shot. Hopefully, at least.

Not long after when the two got on their position, the freaking crate blew up in smoke and Zef answered accordingly. He'd piled guns of all sorts next to him, no time to reload. Fire and throw and so he did.

As expected they moved towards the designated covers and Zef grabbed the remote, smashing the button...

...but nothing happened. Just freaking more fire at his position.

"The thing ain't damn workin'!!!" His voice boomed through the chaos of fire hopefully reaching the ears of his old friend.

Was this it?

Was this the final bluff?


[member="Daro Tarsi"]