First Reply Sour

[Enki Rak]

Somewhere Rotten
​

Captain Rak slid behind a couple of conveniently placed cargo crates, propping himself against them. Calmly, he loaded a fresh cell into his disruptor hand cannon, and tapped his commlink. His bodyguard, Sack, tossed a few shots over the top at their new enemies.

"Get down here, I want some support. Deal's gone-"

Enki is a gun runner, greedy but clever type. He was probably in the middle of haggling the price (or maybe it was a setup) when things break down and a firefight breaks out. Whatever you cook I'm down. Flexible on location and situation; if you don't want to fill in all the details do not sweat it at all, I'll get to them in the next post.

 

[Zar Kevdac]

Zar had set up plenty of gun runners in his day, this was not his first ambush, but this had been the first time in a long time that someone had actually managed to turn the tables. His latest employer, some small time local gangster looking to make it big, was in the market for a new shipment of high-end weaponry and decided paying for it was beneath him. So he set up some independent gun-runner to bring in the equipment, then the plan was just to shoot them all dead and take the goods. Unfortunately that plan had now gone very much sideways, and Zar now found himself in a warehouse crossfire, trading disruptor shots with gun runners, and taking cover behind a box of munitions.

"I want every single one of these kriffing bastards dead!" The Belugan crimeboss hollered from the back of the crate stack as he cowered behind two guards. "Every single one dead, now!"

Zar simply grunted in response and returned to popping off disruptor shots around the corner of his crate cover.

 

[Pal Veda]

“Every . . . Single . . . Time!” Veda muttered to himself, ducking lower as splinters flew over his head from one of a thousand blaster bolts connecting with the crate he was currently crouched behind. To say he was mad was, quite frankly, an understatement. He had not wanted to take this job, but he had nevertheless agreed to step in last minute when an associate got “sick.” And by sick, the old Rodian meant he was still too drunk to walk from the night before. While Veda wasn’t exactly strapped for cash, he would be hard pressed to turn down this payday. Now he realized that this wasn’t good — it was too good. As in a complete setup.

Head down, DL-22 in hand, he called over to the spacer penned down behind the crate a few feet away. “Rak, you got any bright ideas on how to get us the hell out of here?”

 

[Enki Rak]

Zar Kevdac Pal Veda
​

A satisfying clack as the disruptor barrel snapped back into place. Sack dropped back down with him. "Kriffin' Belugans," he said.

A couple of his crew were already down. So were a couple of theirs -- but it was hard to see. One of his hired hands hollered for ideas. "Shut up, I'm thinkin'."

He rubbed his nose with the barrel of his gun, eyes wandering- to the merchandise. The sample was out already -- one of the chumps had tried to grab it, shoot him. He'd been quicker on the draw. But the actual stuff, military grade explosives, heavy repeaters, a variety of funky grenades, all up in a squat couple boxes stacked further down on their side of the room. Nondescript, shoved off to one side... and across a good ten-fifteen meters of open space.

"Aight Pal- we cover. Grab a thermal and flush em out," he pointed to the stash. "Let's go, shidrockets!"

And he stepped up and started blasting, sending shot after shot into the scum's cover, trying to keep their heads down.

 

[Zar Kevdac]

This had quickly turned into the worse kind of firefight stalemate, both sides trading pot shots and splintering crates with not a whole lot getting done in the process. Zar, for his part, kept his head down and his disruptors up, his eyesight might not have been to keen but he had other senses that let him detect targets around corners, it made him more aware of who was where, and that made it easier to reduce those targets to past tense. He'd already ashed a few from the other side, but this was getting them nowhere fast.

Around their side of the warehouse, on the opposite side from the empty corner of the enemy side, was full of crates and industrial equipment, nothing useful but it formed a maze of cover that might give someone a good angle to flank the enemy. Zar grabbed the nearest thug from his side and hauled him aside to grab his attention.

"I'm making a break to get around there cover. You kark-kickers better keep me covered, got it?" The startled Belugan nodded frantically before Zar roughly released him. He waited for the message to get passed around before making his move, just in time for both sides to pop up and all Hell to break loose.

Enki Rak Pal Veda

 

[Pal Veda]

“Grab a thermal? From where!?” But it was too late. The Captain was already runnin‘ and gunnin’, moving loud and fast. Veda prepared to follow, but just as he took his first step from behind cover, he saw multiple shooters from the other team do the same. A blaster bolt hit the ground where his second step was going to be, knocking him back to the spot he had just been stuck in. Going nowhere fast, he thought. Guess I’ll try the other way.

Veda turned and let his blaster guide the way, staying crouched as he began to move through the maze of boxes in the other direction. After making it a few feet, he saw one of the squatty crates. “This should be it.” He had watched the crew load the ship before takeoff and recalled these had the heavy weapons. Using one of the number pry bars that luckily happened to be laying around the warehouse, Veda eagerly popped open the lid and reached inside. “What the hell?”

While Veda had watched some of the crates get loaded, he hadn’t watched them all. And he had paid little attention when they were unloaded. Instead of repeaters and thermals, the box was full of small cylinders of spice! ”Well, here goes nothin’.” He grabbed a couple of the glass tubes and threw them as hard as he could at one of the supporting beams across the room. They shattered on impact, the potent drug raining down and contaminating the air where some of the gunmen were hunkered down.

 

[Enki Rak]

Zar Kevdac Pal Veda
​

"That moron-" and the spice was in the air, glinting particles spreading across one part of the warehouse. Most spice took a few minutes to kick in, but Enki, Sack, and the others' addictions required a more concentrated dosage. The glitterstim was nigh-pure-stuff. This would be instant.

Wasteful as it was, Captain Rak was as high as he wanted to be right now. Thankfully, he didn't go anywhere without a flight suit -- he and his bodyguard put on their masks, hooking up to a high-end filtration system that kept them only as intoxicated as they'd been when they came in.

A couple of the Belugans were already feeling the effects of the spice. One collapsed, another dropped his gun and sat staring at the ceiling as his pupils widened to infinity. Two more ended up incapacitated in some fashion on his end. But many, like him, took a pragmatic approach -- his crew had been around the galaxy. Expecting the unexpected was part of the job.

"That's what I get for not vetting the new hands," he snorted. If he survived, Pal's days on the crew were probably numbered.

With the space gained, Sack and Enki hopped the front and got closer, crossing the gap. He rolled and grabbed the Geonosian sonic blaster he'd given as a sample, sending a goon crashing into a nearby shipping container.

 

[Zar Kevdac]

Zar was, thankfully, out of range when someone flung a cloud of high-yield glitterstim into the air over his side of the warehouse, but that still left the idiots meant to be guarding him staring at their hands and wandering in little circles, making them easy pickings. The only thing that turned this situation around was the fact that a couple of the enemy got caught in the cloud and were starting to giggle so loudly Zar could hear them from across the room.

"What are you doing fools! Get back in position!" The boss was, unfortunately, just outside the immediate spice-radius with a few of his more competent guards, although given how fast the tide was turning it seemed like that wouldn't last for long as the gun runners had broken out their nastiest products.

"Oh kriff me..." Zar grumbled as he crept wide around the dense side of the warehouse. He managed to get an angle on the spice-thrower and a few of the other gun-runners, neither of whom seemed to notice him, so he leveled both disruptors and opened up from their unprotected side.

Pal Veda Enki Rak

 

[Pal Veda]

Veda was too far away to tell how effective his little trick had been, but the uncontrollable laughter coming from across the room told him it affected at least some of them. Maybe now he could get a clear shot, or at least a clear path back to the ship. He wasn’t particularly interested in shooting intoxicated men not firing back at him, but he was very interested in getting out of this mess.

He peeked over the top of the crate. A limited viewpoint, but no blaster in sight. ”Follow me,” he said, motioning to the gun runner next to him. As he made his move, the corner of the crate exploded in front of him, causing him drop his head and throw his arm up to shield his eyes. “Blast it, what are you doing?” He assumed it was the inexperienced gunman behind him shooting off prematurely. Nope. That guy was as limp as a Nar Shaddaa noodle with at least four new holes in his chest. Veda chanced a glance across the room just in time to see an Arconan taking aim at him, having already taken out his colleague. “Kriff!”

Veda moved as quickly as he could, attempting to use his environment to his advantage by cutting the corner and putting a couple of crates between himself and his attacker.

 

[Enki Rak]

Zar Kevdac Pal Veda
​

His bodyguard went to town on the last two goons still conscious, but as the fight was dying down, the captain got a chat with his criminal counterpart. The Belugan had clearly been in a state of panic before the spice had settled. That kind of high was always an unpleasant one. The little crime lord was now a sobbing wreck behind a crate, curled up and recoiling at the sight of Rak's helmeted face.

"These fucking kids. You don't pull stunts like this. Even if ya killed me, no one'd ever work with you again." He wagged the barrel of his gun in the delinquent's face. "Ya hear me?"

He kicked the Belugan, who cried a little harder.

A couple more shots rang out; one of the crook's underlings still mucking about. "Oy! I got your boss. Keep shooting, he dies, you don't get paid. You better karking run or drop your gun. If I see you with a blaster in hand I'll book you a void swim."

Another kick to the Belugan's side, prompting him to wail.

 

[Zar Kevdac]

Zar had a good angle on the gun runner's crew and had dusted a few of the slower men before their captain called out from the other side of the warehouse, apparently he had Zar's boss at blaster point. That was about as wrong as this scenario could go, followed closely by him getting shot, and if he didn't play this right, he would end up shot.

"I got paid up front, fry the bastard for all I care! But what guarantee do I got that you won't just shoot me in the back the second I step out?" His senses were on edge, tongue flicking the air for traces of anyone moving nearby and heat detector scanning for threats. Zar knew better than anyone that an offer to run usually meant an offer to get shot in the back, he was normally the one doing the offering and the subsequent back-shooting. He slapped two fresh power cells into his disruptors and waited for what came next.

Pal Veda Enki Rak

 

[Pal Veda]

Ceasefire? For now, at least. Veda crept through the maze of crates, head down, knowing all too well that these trigger happy goons were likely to fire on him the second he came up for air. It didn’t take long for verbal confirmation. The Arconan’s voice range out through the hangar — “Fry the bastard for all I care!” No surprise there. Was no one loyal in this business anymore? He laughed to himself at the thought. Why would they be? The gunslinger’s boss would do the same to him, and he’d already been paid, so no loss for him. Definition of a hired gun.

He saw Rak and Sack up ahead, guns pointed at a whimpering Belugan. I guess the spice trick worked, he thought, pulling his buff over his mouth and nose to avoid breathing any of the intoxicating particles that may be lingering about. “Hey Cap,” he whisper-shouted as he approached, looking to avoid friendly fire. ”Good to see you boys aren’t full of holes. Can’t say the same for ole Jaffa back there. That Arconan is a damn good shot.”

 

[Enki Rak]

Pal Veda Zar Kevdac
​

"He paid you up front? Bantha piss, you are a fucking moron," he kicked the Belugan again. "Amateurs from here to Corellia. Son of a murglak."

Pal pulled up without a scratch -- Jaffa gone. "Blast. Well, saving something I guess."

He yelled out to the Arconan, "You're right, you got no guarantee. So you better offer me something. Tell me where this vac-head's hideout is and you walk. Let's be quick, bud, I got places to be and my patience runs fast."

 

[Zar Kevdac]

"Kriff your patience!" Zar called back, a twinge of good nature creeping into his tone as he heard the Belugan whimpering with each thud.

"But you've got a point. I'll take you to the fat-feth's hideout personally, that way you can't just shoot me in the back the minute I tell you." He paused a moment before adding. "I'll even dust the big bastard for free."

Enki Rak Pal Veda

 

[Pal Veda]

Outlaws. Can’t trust anybody.

Veda twirled his pistol in his hand as he thought. “This fat bastard’s rollin’ in credits. You know he’s dumb enough and paranoid enough to keep a stash at his hideout. I say we let ole triangle head over there lead us to the payday. Leave with more than we came with.“ He caught the pistol by the grip and ran his finger by the trigger. “And if he tries to screw us, we smoke him, and we’re no worse off than we are sittin’ here right now.”

Bold move to give advice to the captain. Veda signed onto this job last minute. Other than his reputation—they all had reputations out here—he didn’t know Rak from a womp rat in Beggar’s Canyon. But he did know how this game worked. The big scores don’t come easy or often, but, boy, when they do . . . Plus, they had the pile of muscle named Sack and maybe a couple other men still alive in the maze of crates.

———————————————
Enki Rak Zar Kevdac

 

[Enki Rak]

Zar Kevdac Pal Veda
​

"Yeah, okay, Pal."

He rubbed his nose with the barrel of his disruptor. Low risk, could be anywhere from low to high reward. Easy gamble. "Alright, pal- uh, buddy. Arconan. Come on out and we'll head over. Do whatever makes ya feel safe. You know the odds."

He hoisted the Belugan up. "This one owes me, and I ain't letting him go until he's paid."

A couple more of his boys crawled out of their hidey-holes, and he barked at them for being cowards, then laughed, then told them to bring the merchandise back over to the ship. Once they were on their way, he asked, "What's your name, Arconan?"

 

[Zar Kevdac]

Well, that was about as good an offer as he could hope for under the circumstances, and it was his only chance to get out of this warehouse alive. He stepped out slowly, guns drawn but not raised, his reptilian senses scanning the environment for any signs of hostility and finding none.

"Zar." He didn't want to tell these people anything more about himself, all he wanted was to get this gun runner his money and keep his head on his shoulders.

Enki Rak Pal Veda

 

[Pal Veda]

Veda stood slowly, blaster pointed straight at Zar. When he saw the Arconan had his own guns down, he lowered his as well. “Zar Kevdac?” He studied his opponent, keeping his finger close to the trigger. “I’ve heard of you. You killed Ina Bolost on Nar Shaddaa last year when all that spice went missing.” And good riddance to that filthy pirate. “Seems you have a habit of winding up in the middle of deals gone bad, huh?”

He kept his eyes on Kevdac but whispered out the side of his mouth to Rak and Sack. “This guy is trouble.”

———————————————
Zar Kevdac Enki Rak

 

[Enki Rak]

Zar Kevdac Pal Veda
​

"'Course he's trouble. If he wasn't, he'd be in the wrong business." He rubbed his nose. Curious as he was about Zar's history, he was more interested in his money.

"Well, let's get schmovin', Mr. Kevdac."

 

[Zar Kevdac]

Ah yes, the Ina Bolost incident. Truth be told Zar considered that one of his less impressive outings, too much mess, not enough credits, and the spice was already gone by the time he got there. Although, looking at the human who so rudely identified him and his past handiwork...he certainly looked familiar.

"Seems like we have that in common, Mr. Veda. They talk about that little incident on Mon Gazza with the slaving ring like you're something out of a horror-holo." Getting a good look at the human he realized this was Pal Veda, the gunslinger. This was starting to feel like a real meeting of the mercs out here.

"And yeah, I'll lead the way, but you might want to gag him," Zar said pointing to his blubbering former employer as he took a quick, flicking hit of salt to take the post-combat adrenaline edge off. "Either he'll give us away at the first chance, or I'll dust him myself over his constant whimpering."

Pal Veda Enki Rak