The Exile & The Crimelord

[GhostOfProtocol]

Kei stepped from the shuttle. He felt at home in the criminal underworld, he'd spent three years working in the trade after the Commenor situation. He hadn't kept up with anyone, none of his old friends. He didn't know what had happened to anyone over the last few years, only the little drips that he'd been hearing in the news. He didn't know if anyone was safe, dead, hurt, missing him. At the end of the day, he didn't much care. He liked being alone, he liked the calm of being alone, of having no stress.

Replaying the Korriban incident.

It had gotten easier to cope with, the Korriban incident. He was actually sleeping, although the first few months after his return to Keth had been hell. He'd hardly slept and when he had, it had been for a few hours. Over time it had gotten easier to cope with, easier to handle. He expected it to get easier. When it did, he began smuggling again. He rented out ships and just shifted stuff around the galaxy. He didn't care how legal it was, he needed to make an income somehow and no-one paid as well as the Hutt's.

He missed his ship. He'd left the Ebon Hawk on some backwater world with T3-J8. The droid was broken anyway, so both the ship and droid were left to rot. He assumed someone would rescue it but he didn't really care. The ship carried too many memories with it, so did the droid. He liked the changes though, he quite enjoyed the amount of different ships he got to play with, he knew how to fly many frigates inside and out.

He hated most the crews he was stuck with though.

He missed his lightsaber. He hadn't even thought of the battle between light and dark, he just missed his weapon. He carried a temporary one at his hip, something he'd made in his last few days on the Hawk. It was nothing like his actual weapon, he missed his actual weapon. He was at peace with his weapon, a perk of the crystals used. The one he was using was just boring green, it had no special powers, it didn't enhance his force ability. It just gave him a weapon that he felt safe with. The blade always made him felt safe.

Nar Shaddar was a form of hell.

He walked into a building simply known as "The Hawks Den". Nar Shaddar was famous for it's casino's, and he wanted to make some cash somehow. A little extra on the side while he waited for his crew to sleep and rest up so they could go ship more possibly legal stuff across the galaxy.

[member="Ar'ekk"]

 

[Arekk]

NAR SHADDAA​

The Hawk's Den​

Gambling was the most profitable thing in the Smuggler's Moon and the young warrior had learned that over the course of a few weeks, shortly after taking over The Lirak Cartel's operations and rebuilding their destroyed structures, giving birth to The Hawk's Den and the rest of the businesses under his belt. He had made more credits in a matter of a few days than what he obtained through other means a few years back, feeling certain that this was the right decision for his difficult life. Ar'ekk felt on top of the world but he was aware of the dangers of Nar Shaddaa so avoiding any type of bad reputation or attracting unwanted attention was a must, a set of strick rules were in place for anyone that belonged to The Hawk's Circle or wished to belong to his uprising criminal organization. Death would be the only penalty should any member be found guilty, making an example of every single individual who had dared to break the imposed laws.

Upon entering, one's ears were immediately assaulted by the racket of noises; the beeps and clacks of gaming machines, the hoots, hollers and grunts of gambling aliens with an undercurrent of music. At one side, an elevator guarded by two Niktos armed with heavy blasters that led to an apparent VIP room that only allowed certain trustable members and from its balcony a half masked young man overlooked the entire casino in utter silence. Many heavy turrets were placed throughout the casino's interior, ceiling and walls as a security measure which would keep anyone from pulling any trick such as assassination or whatever you could think of. It was unavoidable since, you know, it was Nar Shaddaa after all.

Lost in his thoughts, Ar'ekk continued to stare at every person coming through the main entrance. Too many memories going through his mind, painful ones. A constant reminder of the awful things he had to witness and also do, situations that wouldn't let him sleep peacefully. It had been weeks since he had a good night's rest and that was reflected on the way he spoke and acted.

It was better not to bother him at all.

[member="Kei Raxis"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Kei had one goal, enjoy his time. Nar Shaddaa wasn't a great planet, but it would do. He ordered a simple drink, corellian ale. He was a corellian at heart, he had that going for him. He started to wonder around. He wasn't sure what his plan was, he didn't know how he was going to have fun, how he was going to enjoy his time. He saw a group playing Pazzak but that didn't interest him. He wasn't really a gambler, he preferred work. He knew however that people working on his ship would need a break.

He walked around even more, still not sure. He kept drinking his ale, slow sips. He wasn't really paying attention either, catching his arm off a male. He didn't pay attention when the male's beer was spilled. He only payed attention when he felt a fist hit him in the face. He fell to his knees, grunting. He felt another fist hit him, a man shouting at him for spilling his beer, for knocking into him.

What an idiot.

@Ar'ekk

 

[Arekk]

A commotion broke out in one of the busiest areas of The Hawk's Den, a Duros against what seemed to be a clueless human over a spilled drink. Obviously, the first one was a local thug that ran a piece of the Refugee Sector and whoever dared to even talk to him without permission would meet the knuckles on his hand.

The security staff quickly came to neutralize the situation and separate the two, thankfully they were righteous individuals and decided to stop the matter at once. From the balcony of the VIP Room, Ar'ekk watched the Corellian guy with determination. He could feel his Force signature and the same could be done by himself, they knew a lot because of that.

With a swift hand gesture, he instructed the security staff to release the Corellian man and let the Duros walk away back to his entourage in the other side of the casino. On the house, Kei was rewarded two tickets to exchange at the bar for his favorite drink of choice as a thank-you gesture for not breaking hell loose. Although, one of the Nikto guards would keep a keen eye out on him for the rest of the evening until he finally left.

[member="Kei Raxis"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Free drinks?

He was somewhat okay with this. He didn't get told why, although he assumed it was payment for being punched in the face hard. It annoyed him that he got attacked just for not paying attention, but he knew he needed to be the bigger man for a change and not cause a proper big bar fight. Bar fights were fun, but there was a time and a place for a good bar fight and the middle of a casino wasn't one of those.

Instead, Kei ordered another drink. He could feel a presence in the force, another force user. He was surprised, force users were rare enough but the odds of one being in a casino, the odds of two being in the same place was low. Unless they were at some annual Jedi gathering or in some sort of order. Or battling, force users battling tended to leave lots of force users together in one place. Though that was normally over power.

He took his drink, and set off towards the VIP area.

@Ar'ekk

 

[Arekk]

Suddenly, one of the Nikto guards left what seemed to be a holorecorder next to Kei's table and quickly left as he blended with the crowd before the Corellian could lay his eyes upon him. If he were to listen to the encoded message, it'd say the following:

"Greetings. I hope your face has not gotten swollen after spilling your drink on Shi'daar, a local crime lord who runs a piece of the Karji Sector. On behalf of The Hawk's Circle, we have granted you a free drink and a hundred credit chips for not starting a scene inside The Hawk's Den."

The message seemed to have cut off but at the very end of the transmission a small excerpt could be heard before the holorecorder destroyed itself.

"Foll---... the Force. The key t--.... is-..... above you."

Ar'ekk stared at Kei from the commodity of his own private secluded area yet realized it was time to avoid attracting unwanted attention on himself, so he left and started to speak with members of his security entourage. Soon enough, they'd be having a visitor should he be smart and understood what everything meant.

The Force worked in mysterious ways.

[member="Kei Raxis"]

 

[GhostOfProtocol]

Kei closed his eyes as he walked. The force was an extremely strange thing, but Kei could still feel the force signature from before. He assimed that was what the message was referring to. He stopped at the door to the VIP area. Kei handed over a few credits, nodding as the guard moved aside to welcome him into the VIP area. Kei stolled up the stairs slowly, scanning every square inch of the stairwell.

He closed his eyes again. The man was close, he was in the room. Kei leant against the wall, scanning the crowds. He had very little idea who he was looking for exactly. He could feel that the man was close. He shook his head for a few moments, taking a seat in VIP. He continued to study the people, interested in the message he had recieved. He wanted to know why he had been targetted by this force user.

He needed to know who the force user was first.

@Ar'ekk