The Best Place To Make Friends

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira walked down the streets of Coruscants lower level. She wanted to do something to acquire some money, but first she needed a drink, so she was scouring the place for a bar. She weaved through the bustling crowds trying to spot a decent looking bar, when something finally caught her eye. It was a neon sign indicating a bar, and it looked promising. Though of course Thalira would accept anything as long as she got some alcoholic beverages. She made her way to the entrance of the bar, and upon entering, she found herself in a partially clouded building. There was a band playing music in the back, and people were gathering around to listen whilst they spoke among themselves. Thalira made her way to the bar counter where she placed a credit chip and motioned for the bartender. As she waited she took a seat on a barstool and watched the other patrons.

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

Za landed his stolen ship on the docking platforms around the western side of the underworlds entertainment district, albe it rather shakily as he was not so sure about docking ships...having never docked before and walked off. A few people shot him strange looks as it was almost unheard of to see a Tusken flying on a ship, let alone even being this far towards the inner rim planets to begin with. These looks didnt make much of a difference towards Za however, He was determined to see just what other mysteries were around and what other life was like. He found himself walking down the durasteel walkways soon enough and making his way inside of the local Cantena, The entire place was strange to him and he had to fight the urge to attack everyone as this was not his home...they even had liquids in abundance..not the case where he came from. He walked over towards the bar, Ignoring the questionable looks from others and sat down "How much...for the blue stuff" He said though the respirator he wore in his mask as he was still learning to read in English...and it was a glowing blue color that he had never seen before. "Bout four credits" The Bartender said and after he counted out four he took the drink and after removing his mask, something tusken raiders typically didn't do, He drank it all in one shot, Being an alcohalic beverage and it being the first time he had ever tasted the stuff, he shuttered as his vision got a little hazey. The Bartender walked over towards the girl who came in before him, A girl who screamed of pirating, though what else would you expect in a place like this. "What can I get ya?" he asked as Za looked over as well, seeing her and though not meaning to, was watching her, curious as to what humans drank there....she seemed like some one who might have a little more insight then he did at the moment though...how to approach her...this was most likely the toughest part for him...civilized conversing

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira was turned away from the bar, looking towards the back of the cantina. Her gaze was fixed upon a young twi'lek woman who was dancing to the music. Thalira enjoyed the twi'lek physiology, so watching a twi'lek dance was a favorite activity of hers. As she was admiring the twi'lek dancer her gaze was interrupted by the bartender asking what she wanted. She turned back to the bar and addressed the man on the other side of the counter. "I'll take a shot of your finest whiskey." After a second she placed a few more credit chips on the counter and spoke again. "Let's make it a double." The bartender nodded and poured her a big shot glass of whiskey that came in a somewhat fancy bottle. After the bartender left to go attend to other patrons Thalira picked up the glass and took a sip of it. It gave her slight a look of disgust. The taste was awful. But it burned on the way down, and that was the point. Knowing that it wasn't the nastiest drink she ever had she downed the rest of the drink in one go and firmly placed the glass back on the counter. A few people were looking at her, but considering what she just did it didn't surprise her. But there was someone who caught her eye. Since Thalira lived on Tatooine for a few years, she knew about the Tusken Raiders, but what was one doing on Coruscant? Thalira brought her left hand up as if she was going to wave to the peculiar man, but instead she placed her elbow against the bar counter and rested her chin on her fist. She turned her head to look at the Tusken Raider for several seconds, then she turned her gaze to a bottle rack behind the bar.

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

As Za watched her he looked towards the Tw'lek woman as well when her gaze had followed over. He had heard stories of other galaxies enslaving lesser races, He always passed it off as a story that people used to scare the tribe into staying on the outskirts though judging by how the female danced, That much was true. He turned back around and he ordered another drink and downed the blue shining liquid. People continued to look, others talking to one another as the sight of a tusken raider off planet was a very rare sight. It wasn't long before a brave assassin walked up behind him and spoke. "What are sand people doing down here?" He asked though Za didn't respond to him as the alcohol took effect on him. "I'm talking to you raider!" he yelled though again, Za didn't respond as he was hoping not to make his first impression a violent one. The assassin had enough and grabbed him from the back of his neck and this caused Za to spin around and grab the assassin. People screamed and ran in shock as others pulled there guns before Za slashed his neck with the plasma knife, then using the body to absorb the fired shots before throwing him and overturning a table and firing his tusken cycler at the group of men from behind the metal table .

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira saw the assassin approach the tusken raider out the corner of her eye, so she made a mental note to get ready to get out of there since things were bound to go sideways. And all she wanted was a half decent drink, which she would argue she didn't even get. But her problems would have to wait, as the assassin was now yelling. But as soon as he approached, he now had the tuskens hands on him. A moment later the assassin was dead and his body was being used as a shield. Now that wasn't what Thalira expected at all. She expected bloodshed, but she thought it would be the tusken raider lying on the floor, not the assassin. Immediately Thalira had the idea to help this fish out of water, then perhaps he would help her. She quickly scanned the room until she found a back exit that wouldn't be that hard to reach. With the beginnings of a plan, Thalira grabbed a half-empty beer bottle that a patron next to her(who had already ran out of the cantina) was drinking, and she got on the floor and slid over to the tusken raider who was taking cover under a table. She took a drink from the bottle, then threw it over the table, hoping to hit someone with it. Then she spoke to the tusken. "Hey, I see you're a capable guy, and you can probably take all these karks on, but if you wanna get out of here before the authorities show up, then follow my lead." Thalira hoped that the man understood her, but she couldn't linger on it too much. Once she had an opening, she rushed back to the bar counter and hopped over it, taking cover behind it, then she gestured for the tusken to follow her.

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"] Za Fired the Cycler again and again, The red blast striking the other side of the wall and dropping a hanging Holographic generator that was showing a sports station that wasn't of much knowledge or concern to Za down on one of the shooters. He then saw a beer bottle go soaring and smash over on the skull of a Ugnaught who had also wound up shooting at the raider. When he heard the female talking about getting out of there before the authorities showed up he felt his stomach shoot up into his throat a little. Even being as far from home as he was, He heard stories of white clad solders in armor (Clones and storm troopers) weather these were the authorities she was referring to or not he knew it would all end the same and he did NOT want to end up dead after just getting off of the sandy home world he was born on. He looked around and fired his blaster a few more times and then fired at the alcohol stand. The heat of the blaster colliding with the alcohol lit a blaze up that he used as cover to slip out quickly, dodging a few stray blasts in the smoke inside before He crawled out relatively unharmed as his respirator in his mask filtered out the smoke particles from the oxygen and soon he made his way out of the back door. he pushed it shut and though he didn't know this girl..She was the only one not shooting at him so that had to count for something right? "thanks" He said as he removed his mask revealing a thin face with tribal tattoos on it that decorated all over his face. "I have to admit, i hadn't quite wanted a fight to occur" He said as he had picked up a few stringed sentences by listening to the humans around him in the bar.

 

[Thalira Kiing]

There was a few close calls in getting out of the cantina, but Thalira made it unscathed, and as far as she could tell, so did the tusken. Suddenly she found herself in a back alley with the man, and since it looked like they'd be safe for a little while, he seemed to let his guard down. But she knew they weren't completely out of danger just yet. Whether it was the authorities or mercenaries hired by the cantina, someone would soon be sweeping the area looking for the two of them. But they could rest for a moment. And perhaps this was a good time for Thalira to offer this man a job. "Don't worry about it, no one ever plans on starting a fight. The good thing is nobody got hurt. At least, nobody we care about." She smirked and gave the man a wink. "Names Thalira. What's a guy like you doing in a place like this? Awfully far from home, aren't ya?"

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

After Za dusted his clothes off and put his mask back on he glanced over at her for a moment as he readjusted it to keep his entire body covered before speaking, his voice sounded a little cybernetic when the mask was on due to the air filter he had put inside of the mouth to help him breath as he had expected most planets to be toxic, another legend he was told and although he knew it was false now, He still was a tad paranoid. "uhm..." He managed to say as he thought about the wording he would need to use, He could speak tusken fluently...but English...not exactly his strong point. "I .. was on a ship...reading about it..when the ship took off...It landed here" He managed to get out as he thought again, making sure he was saying the right words as he didn't want to mess up and passably provoke a fight with the one person who had yet to try and kill him. "I managed to learn to fly...and came here, My people say that the worlds beyond ours are hostile and want nothing but the death of others and ourselves but...well...I didn't quite believe it, I wanted to see for myself" He explained "And..I wanted to make money, more money, See other life besides my home world" he told her calmly though his pauses made his speech seem slightly broken due to his lack of ability of talking. "I forgot to introduce myself...I believe in your language..My name would be Za, Za ..Krarq" He said and extended his hand to shake as he had seen a few people greet one another with it, he assumed this must be how you greet people on other worlds.

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira accepted Za's hand and shook it for a moment before letting go, then brought her hand back to her side. "Nice to meet you, Za. I gotta tell ya, if you wanna make money, you've met the right person. Not only am I an expert at making money, but I was planning on making some this very night. You see, there's this weaponsmith not very far from here that likes to overprice his goods, and sell to people who need the protection. If we were to break into the shop and steal a bag or two of blasters, we'd be able to sell 'em for a nice price on the black market. We'll make a profit and also end the career of a nerfherder businessman." To tell the truth, Thalira couldn't give a damn about what the owner of the business was doing, or that his stock was overpriced. But she didn't know if Za would be comfortable with robbing from just anyone, so she tried to make the weaponsmith sound like a bad guy. "I'll get us into the place through the back door, and you can do any muscle work if need be. We can split the profits fifty-fifty. What do you say? Partner?"

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

Za Listened to her speak of a businessman selling overpriced weaponry and naturally he wanted to rob the guy blind. Lucky for him, that was exactly what Thalira had been planning. He considered her words for a moment though as she was in the underworlds of Corrisaunt so he knew she wasn't some robin hood kind of figure though with his past transgressions with his tribe, He wasn't one to make any kind of calls regarding character. Then his thoughts went onto the over lining issue, being that he was a sand person. Since he was a tusken, he knew his reputation was that of stupidity and savagery, not likely many would respect him as a citizen unless he fought for it. "you think we can clean his store out of more then guns?" He asked her as he looked down at his Tusken cycler. He wasn't one who would likely ever change his gun but there was no harm in upgrading parts of it and adding things to it to make it deadlier "I feel like a few parts to upgrade this..might be a good way to make things a tad easier" He said as he looked up at her "fifty-fifty..Sure, I like the sound of it..Partners" he said agreeing to her terms, who knows...He might find a liking for smuggling and stealing out here..there was so many fascinating things out here after all.

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira was glad Za agreed to do business with her. Whenever she met someone who seemed capable, she liked to offer them a job. Not only did doing that get her money, but she also sometimes come out with a new contact. A friend to call when she needs to do something big. Perhaps Za would be one of these contacts, but at the moment all Thalira cared about was the credits. But it sounded like the man had another thing on his mind. "I think there're some attachments you can grab while we're there. If there aren't, or if they're just too difficult to grab, you can take apart a couple of the blasters and take what you want from them." Thalira quickly looked around the alley, making sure no one had found them yet. "Listen, I've got a hideout not far from here. I've got a stash of bags that we can use for this job. We should go there so we can get ready." She walked over to the end of the alley and motioned for Za to follow.

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

Za nodded to her and as he got off of the wall, he could hear voices of the local guard coming into the cantena in order to investigate the disturbance he had caused minutes earlier. "maybe we should get a move on.. I don't think we're quite the people the peace keepers want to see right now... And I think I might have even less of a chance at surviving an encounter with anyone here.. " he said to the smuggler as he knew all to well most considered him less then human due to the savage nature of his tribe and the others. He walked over towards her and let her lead the way Wail he loaded his gun to keep it prepared and ready to fire, the cycler was made mainly of recycled parts and as such, it was considered sub-par compared to most others besides sniper class weaponry. "so... Where is your hide out at? How far is it from this place" he asked her calmly as he glanced around the abandon ally

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira saw Za readying his gun for a fight, and although she hoped it didn't come to that, she was glad he would be ready if they ran into anyone on their way to her hideout. "It's not that far from here," Thalira answered Za's question. "It'll only take a couple minutes to get there. Follow me." Then Thalira lead Za out of the alley and into the streets of Coruscant's lower city. Entering crowds made it easy to hide from anyone who might have been looking for the two individuals, and after just a few minutes they arrived at Thalira's hideout. She strapped an SE-14 Blaster Pistol to her belt and got out two duffel bags. "Here's the bags we'll put the goods in. I'll also bring this just in case," She patted her pistol. While she wasn't a great shot with handheld weapons, she still brought one to most places just in case she actually needed one. But when she wasn't in a ship she preferred to avoid combat. "Alright, this is it. We can leave for the shop now. Are you ready?"

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

Za followed her without a word as they moved down lower into the sub levels of corrisaunt's entertainment district. He moved through the crowds of people. He glanced side to side every so often as he moved almost snake like through the crowds, pausing once to look at a dancer before quickly following. It wasn't to long before they had soon made it to the hide out and once the door was shut Za finally spoke "Is this place always so...interesting?" He asked Thalira as he set his rifle down and pulled off his mask and began to clean the lenses and wail the entire district itself was rather interesting...he was referring mainly to the dancers that caught his eye during there travels. He reached up and caught the bag that was tossed at him and he slung it over his tan robed shoulder and then replaced his mask back on before grabbing the Cycler from the table "i can handle long range, this rifle isn't a short range shot sadly...you think you can cover that?" He asked as he walked over to the Pirate and leaned on the wall opposite her as he waited, ready to move whenever she was.Glancing outside for a moment he saw the authorities turning around from the cantina and getting back in there speeder in order to search the area "So hypothetically speaking" Za asked as he looked at her slightly "How much is the potential payload?" He was starting to get quite exited over the attack on the gunsmith, part of his Tuskin Upbringing showing slightly.

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira noticed Za taking interest in the dancers on the streets, and when he asked about them, she knew what he meant. "If you like this place, you should see Nar Shadaa." She answered him with referencing the planet she spent a lot of time on. But when he asked about guns, she was a little less enthusiastic to answer his question. Since she wasn't very good with handguns, she tried to avoid getting in firefights in situations where she wasn't piloting a ship. However, she wasn't going to outright let Za know she wasn't good with a blaster, she she would just answer the question vaguely. "Yeah, don't worry about it." She was just hoping they didn't have to use violence to get the profit. Speaking of which, it looked like that was on both of their minds, as Za was asking about it. "Depending on what we are able to grab, I'm thinking we could run off with twenty to forty-thousand credits per person. I know a guy who pays nicely for stolen goods."

With all that, Thalira figured they were ready to head out. She slung the two empty duffel bags over her left shoulder and attached a datapad to her belt. Then she exited the building and re-entered the streets, though she made sure to give Za enough time to follow. There was a patrol of two law enforcement officers still searching nearby, but they'd be able to avoid them by going in the crowds. Even though weaving through the crowds might prove to be a little difficult, Thalira made sure to check that Za was behind her every couple moments. It would take a few minutes to get to the shop, and Thalira didn't want to get separated from her accomplice.

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"] "Nar Shadda? " Zap repeated as he followed behind his new found partner with a mix of cureosity and awe both at once. He didn't pick up on her delay of response as he had a hard time even telling what people felt when they wernt trying to hide things. He saw the law looking for them and though he kept himself ready to fight at a moments notice, he was glad that they were able to blend in and slip around them as Za already didn't have a good vibe about him just for being a tuskin. As they slipped around the buildings za spoke again "I assume.. You have spend time in nar Shadda? " he asked her as he glanced behind him for a moment to be sure that he wasn't followed

 

[Thalira Kiing]

Thalira slowed down her walking pace so she could walk side by side with Za for a moment, so she could answer his question. "Yeah, I've spent quite a bit of time on Nar Shadaa. If you're interested, I could introduce you to some of my contacts there." She walked beside Za for another minute until she noticed a law enforcement officer going the same way as them, so she sped up a bit and re-entered another crowd, while making sure to keep an eye on where Za was. Once she knew the officer wouldn't be able to see them, she turned around and walked towards Za, and when she got back to him she grabbed him by the arm and pulled him into an alley. She brought her finger to her mouth, signalling him to be quiet. "We're here." She whispered, then walked over to a computer terminal in front of a door in the alley. She started typing away on a console, trying to get the door open. "Watch the exit; Make sure no one comes in here."

[member="Za krarq"]

 

[Za krarq]

[member="Thalira Kiing"]

As the pair walked za did what he could to blend in, even removing his mask as to not look so much like a tuskin raider and more of a "local". When she swiftly vanished without a word he knew something was up so he moved into small cantena until the law vanished before coming out from the doorway and moving near Thaliri again "I wouldn't mind all that much I won't lie.. I'll take the work where I can get it " he told her before looking around when she shushed him. He glanced around and after he pulled his gaffie stick out and had the cycler loaded up he said "I'll send static through. The headset if anyone shows up.. Kill anyone I need or do we have to keep them Alive? " he asked as he watched the streets filled with people and saw the sky littered with ships, still quite taken in by the underworld