Sea of Thieves! - Dom of Nar Kreeta [SJO]

[Riley Reese]

Making a mental map of the facility was easy for the young Quigling, even amongst all her worry. What was difficult was keeping up with the group. Everyone was so much taller than her and could cover ground at a quicker pace. To keep up, she had to open herself up to the force to increase her speed. That's when she felt them, a large group of beings all packed in a small area.

Tika came to a stop in front of the door with the rest of the group. Getting in was the easy part as her Master began to cut her way through the door. After several tense minutes, the slab of steel broke free and fell back into the room. The piece of steel barely hit the ground and Tika was already hurrying inside.

What greeted her made her stomach knot up. Quiglings, a couple dozen, all locked in cages like animals. She had to fight back her anger at the site so she could focus on freeing them. Tika glanced up at Sabine and gave a nod when asked if she could tell the other Quiglings what was happening.

Tika darted from cell to cell, telling the prisoners that they were being rescued. Soon the room was filled with guttural speech as word spread quickly of their rescue. Prisoners began moving around in their cells as they waited for freedom.

The sound of metal bending began to fill the room as Asaraa used the force to bend the bars. Luckily, Quiglings are small so the gap didn't need to be that big. As soon as there was room enough, prisoners began pouring out of the cells. Everyone was now one step closer to freedom.

[member="Asaraa Vaashe"]
[member="Sabine Galen"]
[member="Sigyn Vanir"]

 

[Vattas the Hutt]

[SIZE=11pt]The flames licked Vattas’s skin, but did not burn it, his thick sweat becoming a protective layer of slime against the heat. Rather than glide his way through using his implants, which would be simpler, Vattas took to slithering through the manor which, being owned by a Hutt, had only Hutt-viable pathways with ramps and wide halls. The reason for this was not due to any detriment the implants could have caused, but rather for the sake of those without Vattas’s unique constitution. Every so often, Vattas would find a mercenary or thug passed out, or on the brink of doing so, and would use some minor force telekinesis to remove the smoke ash from their lungs. It wasn’t much, but with some light mind trick they would awaken. At first, many thought he was Zotra, but they must have been around for awhile to notice the difference between Hutts. Embracing them to provide their skin with a slimy coating against the flame, Vattas instructed those people, no doubt criminal in nature, to follow the path he had created out, protected against the flames by his trail of sweat.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]This was perhaps not the best use of his time, knowing he was in a rush, and yet he could not leave these living creatures alone, even if they were cutthroats and thieves. He had Jedi principles to uphold, and only prayed the Force would guide him to victory nonetheless.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Upon reaching the throne room, a great hall of Hutt hubris, Vattas saw and rushed to his old friend’s body. Lightsaber work, it looked like. Vattas doubted the Order had anything to do with this, but it was worth an investigation. Zotra was still small for his age. In that moment, Vattas did not think about any of the cruelty Zotra may have inflicted. It was not in a Hutt’s nature to consider morality. Even still, his little huttlet friend was never brutal, always reasonable, always making deals, and more fair than a Hutt tended to be. Perhaps he was in a bad trade, what Hutt wasn’t? It may be rationalization, but Vattas could not help but feel a small fury for Zotra’s death… or supposed death.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]The cut on Zotra was deep, but a Hutt was tough to kill, it was their most defining characteristic after their intelligence and amorality. The Hutt crimelord gasped, face and torso split nearly in two, looking at Vattas and then smiling like greeting an old friend. Then, he coughed, air escaping out his neck. The smoke and flame would not normally be a danger to Zotra, but with the gash through his body, his filtration was no doubt weakened and the smoke hindered his regeneration. Zotra was going to die, but slowly. Vattas wanted to save his friend right then, to pull the slug onto his shoulder and drag him out of there with his lifters, but a doubt checked Vattas: if Zotra didn’t survive, Vattas would be leaving behind the only thing that might check the Hutt Council. And if Zotra did survive, what would become of the Silver Order’s territory? The second thought disgusted Vattas, to think he was considering his Order as an excuse to not save his friend, and yet it was there. His Jedi training, teaching him not only empathy but also pure logic, tortured him with this. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]“Zotra, I cannot save you, although I want to,” Vattas spoke, a half lie like acid in his mouth. “But let us make a deal: Show me your ledgers, and in exchange I will grant you a swift death.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Zotra frowned slightly at this, the worst of thoughts no doubt running through him at that moment, but then coughed once more, weezing black air in and out of himself. After it subsided, the crimelord struggled his hand, pointing behind the throne. Vattas nodded, waving his hand, a mind trick to put Zotra to sleep. It could no doubt be resisted, but Zotra did not. Activating his lightclub, Vattas decapitated his friend and ensured all the vitals which might bring him back in some capacity were all destroyed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=11pt]Moving behind the throne, Vattas found the hidden panel, a common Hutt mechanism which hid the device in ultraviolet which most other species could not see. Activating it, a secret backroom was open, many large tables and shelves organized along the walls, a snug and secure Hutt study. With ease, mostly due to Zotra’s organization, Vattas found the ledgars, numerous accountings of the deals and profits and spendings on Nar Kreeta, and in it Vattas had no doubt there was proof… proof of Zotra’s skimming from the Hutt Clan’s taxes. It was not so uncommon of an occurrence, only a matter of whether a Hutt is foolish enough to get caught, and if so they would count their days. Zotra may have been fair for a Hutt, but for a Hutt embezzlement and tax evasion were, comparatively, the fairest crimes of all. If Vattas present the Council with this, they may not see the need to go to war over somebody who cheated them… or they may go to war anyway just for the insult of a Hutt being killed. But at the least, there was a chance for peace, and that is what Vattas held tightly onto, his friend’s corpse still fresh in his mind as he rushed out of the collapsing manor.[/SIZE]