The Merciful Ones [GR-TJO] (PM First)

[Kana Truden]

Nar Shaddaa
Nar Shaddaa - The smuggler’s moon. While not the ideal place for a refugee camp it was still within Republic, even if just barely. Home to generations of Crime lords and crime in general. The recent events between the Ravens and the Suns probably hadn’t helped either. Needless to say the question whether these supplies would truly reach the refugees or not wasn’t quite as clear as Kana would like.

They hadn’t quite reached the planet yet, the quiet hums of the hyperdrive as it carried [member="Kana Truden"] and [member="Corvus Raaf"] onward would be an indicator of such. There were mixed emotions to be had about the mission. At least in Kana’s case. On one hand it was a crime-ridden hive of scum and villainy, but on the other hand this was the planet Master Katarn had begun his journey proper. The former was bad, but the latter was exciting.

She was standing up, hands on her hip and looking at Corvus.

“...- I’m not saying anything. It’s just the fact that you had damage reports tucked away in the cockpit. It wasn’t exactly one of those things I had expected to find when I went to Rhen V-... I mean when I went on a, uh, personal journey.”

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus thought that Nar Shadaa was a good place to go. Her new Padawan was a former gang member, and the chance to meet some up close and personal might be useful in better understanding where he came from.

Corvus was brought back to the here and now by Kana's question. "Now, let's be clear, you're not the only detective. Jedi dental records show precisely who's been taking bites out of my ryshcate. And as well as paperwork purporting to relate to alleged crashes, this ship has full logs of all journeys made." She patted the console and raised her eyebrows in mock indignation. "Raven tells me everything."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Oh she does? Well, maybe that’s because unlike you I don’t have anything to hide.” A wide grin as she tried to keep herself from laughing. “And second of-...” A snicker went through her system and she fought hard to keep it in to no avail. “Second of all, you should really conquer that-... That materialism.”

She bit her lip as she tried to calm herself down. It wasn’t proper to try and rile each other up like this but just this once it was actually really fun. Not that crashing a ship was a laughing matter but her friend was still alive, that was all she could really ask for. Another snicker followed by a muted laugh attack as she raised her fist in front of her mouth.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t…” She let the laughter run free. “It’s been way too long since I could just sit down and not be ‘Knight Truden of the Jedi Order’.” She sighed as the laughter settled down. “Don’t get me wrong, I love it but it’s never with good friends in the same way it is right now.”

“What I mean is that it’s good to have some time again. Just you and me, it's not the same as a friendly walk through the rains of Ossus but I'll take it over invading sith compounds any day.” Kana sat down in front of Corvus. “Anyway, there might be others joining us when we’re groundside. The details were a bit blurry on that but in any case we’re here to deliver some supplies to a refugee camp that’s been set up here. There may have been some supplies delivered before by other jedi but in either case we’re here to do some good.”

“I admit, I picked it because it seemed rather straightforward and, well, easy.”

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus laughed too. Being on duty for 24 hours - or for however long the planet they were on orbited its sun - a day was tiring. But it was the life of a Jedi, and she was thankful for it.

But even Jedi can have a bit of banter every now and then. But her laughter was short-lived. "Remember Taboon? That was supposed to be easy until the politicians and the money-men joined in. if we can keep this as low-key as possible, I'd be happy."

"Anyway, I don't own Raven, I just...well, I just tend to fly her most often. There are other ships you can use you know. Don't tell me..." she rolled her eyes dramatically, "That wouldn't be half as much fun, am I right?"

"So what exactly are we planning on doing?"

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“These supplies will help the local refugee camp. It’s the basics of the basics, really.” Kana placed her elbows on the small table in front of her. “Meds, food and other kinds of necessities.”

All stowed away conveniently in the cargo bay. Not that it was a big shipment but it would still help the camp. In a sense this was almost a mirror of Taboon. A refugee camp and they were there to help in any way they could. Hopefully there wouldn’t be as much of a commotion as last time, but Nar Shaddaa had a notorious reputation to be full of criminals, didn’t it?

“I would lie if I said I wasn’t excited.” Kana chimed up. “It’s a planet of crime, but it was also the planet where Master Katarn set out on his journey to eventually become a master of the force.”

“Well, the first time anyway. See, I’ve read up on him quite a lot during the year or so that I’ve spent at the academy. I don’t know why, but he’s kind of like an inspiration of a sort. Granted, he had that Dark Side phase but Mara Jade was helpful with that. So, he was in this cantina, right? When a gran thug…”

Kana caught herself. The details weren’t really that interesting.

“Sorry, you’ve got your Kenobi and I have my Katarn.” She chuckled a bit. “What I was trying to say is that I don’t expect any real trouble when we’re down there but keeping an eye on our surroundings wouldn’t hurt. Especially not when us jedi have such a nice price on our heads, right?”

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus enjoyed listening to Kana talking about her favourite Jedi. It said a lot about a Jedi in her opinion - and she hoped her fascination for Darth Bane wasn't taken out of context - because his fascination with holocrons was really interesting to read about.

"Any news on who might be joining us? I suspect that politicians will be the least of our worries down there. The heightened tension between the gangs could mean what we carry is too valuable for us to simply hand over."

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“I expect uninvited guests to come and try to take it from us, that much is true.” Kana nodded. “But for now the only person we know that could potentially be present is the watchman of Nar Shaddaa himself. Ekul Selah.”

They had both met him before, of that Kana was sure. Philosophy class with Kian and all.

“So it’s good to know the man we put in charge of maintaining order will be present.” She let her elbows down from the table and sat in and upright position. “I must admit, it’s strange that Nar Shaddaa falls under the Republic and not the Black Suns.”

“Anyway, once this is all over I’ve got something else in store. Sorry to say I seem to have forgot what it was, but it’ll get back to me. It was something we were supposed to do…”

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] ]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

"When things slip your mind like that, it's invariably something I won't like!" She smiled at Kana - her banter was invariably at Corvus' expense, which was only fair as Corvus' was always joking with her friend in return.

"I've been thinking." As she said this, a small pouch levitated out of her robe pocket and from it came a ring. "I found this one down in the tunnels below the Academy. It's another of the Padawan rings. Although it doesn't have a Dark aura, it is definitely Sith in origin. I was wondering if we should practice what Phyllis taught us? What do you think?"

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“Oh relax! If it was something that was supposed to go down after the business has been dealt with then it must have been something that wouldn’t be playing the same”

The suggestion to practice Force Light was a good one. A strange time to do so, maybe, but a good one nonetheless. The problem with it being that firstly Kana was rubbish at it, secondly they would probably be approaching Nar Shaddaa soon. Still, a quick practice round wouldn’t hurt.

“We could do that, yeah. Just don’t take too long. There might not be enough time but why not?.”

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus smiled. "Don't forget Kian's golden rule - a Jedi is never late! So we have time. We should try it individually first and then see what happens when we join together."

But with that she set the ring down on the floor of the cockpit in front of them. Closing her eyes she repeated what she had learned. Using the Force she allowed it to fill her, so she was at one with it. Then, reaching out and pointing at the ring with her hand she imagined the Force travelling to the object and surrounding it with the Light. Without even opening her eyes, she could tell the trail from her hand and to the ring was there - but weak and ineffective. "Perhaps I simply don't believe enough?". Her voice was not sad but there was no warmth in it either.

[member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

Customs networks, in general, tended to be some of the least safeguarded computer networks in the galaxy, Cryax Bane, a slicer for the criminal syndicate Red Ravens, thought with a smirk. Especially the ones on Nar Shaddaa which seemed to have been set up by a bunch of Kowakian Monkey Lizards turned systems administrators. Hunched over a computer terminal in Docking Bay 45, a Red Ravens-owned docking bay, the young Chiss was currently browsing manifests from ships being checked into a particularly porous Nar Shaddaa Customs network he had just sliced into. He saw a few ships with some interesting cargo, but the one that really caught his eye was the Republic freighter bringing in a large amount of hospital grade medicines. Bingo. Prime fencing goods. The ship was also bringing food and blankets planetside but Cryax didn't care so much about that.

Cryax, working under the code name "Bug," easily found the login credentials of the hapless Customs official and unceremoniously rerouted the ship's landing to Docking Bay 45. But the Chiss wasn't receiving his guests alone. With him were [member="Lisa Ticon"] and [member="Nei Laa"], two of the most ruthless Red Ravens mercenaries, along for the ride to make sure that whoever was bringing the supplies into their hands, would be glad to donate them to the Ravens instead.

He turned towards Nei and Lisa and smiled. "Got a freighter incoming. Hospital grade drugs. Who knows what else. Let's just say the nest has been feathered for a landing."

[member="Lisa Ticon"] [member="Nei Laa"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Cryax Bane"] [member="Lisa Ticon"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Kana Truden"]

Nei was standing with her arms crossed, watching Cryax work while at the same stealing glances at Lisa. The latter was someone she had never before had a chance to get to know; that didn't mean, however, that she didn't know of the woman. Indeed, if the few rumours the Nautolan actually listened to were anything to go by, then Lisa was someone to avoid getting on the bad side of.

Nei's head tresses twitched in the Nautolan version of raising an eyebrow. "Drugs?" she asked. "How much be their worth? And what party be their couriers?" Deep down, Nei was kinda hoping it would be the Imperials. A long shot, true, but hey, it wouldn't hurt to knock a few of 'em upside the head.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Cryax Bane"] [member="Nei Laa"]

Lisa flipped a poision dagger hilt over blade and caught it. She had been doing this ritual for several hours in an attempt to calm her impatience at waiting, she was a woman of action.

She was a small woman too, fit like an armory though. Two sabers, two SMG's, Two Mist plasma pistols, twin poisoned daggers and a large silenced fifty call slughtrower rifle to boot. As she stood in her silvery armor her eyes scanned the two of them and the area, keeping a lookout for any unwanted people.

"So whats the deal then, Shall I set up overwatch with the ol rifle?"

 

[Cryax Bane]

Cryax turned towards the two ladies who were clearly the muscles of the operation. The Chiss slicer himself could still barely shoot his blaster. He carried a vibroknife in his boot and while he had killed a man with it once, wasn't much better with a melee weapon either. He grinned at Nei when she asked him about the cargo's worth.

"Their worth depends on how much the black market wants heavy-duty opiates. So I'm guessing we'll get a kark-load of credits for 'em." He turned back towards the ship manifest with a frown. "I can't tell the crew's affiliation from the manifest. A Republic ship landing on Nar Shaddaa is unusual don't you think? Maybe it's a front for the Suns?" He didn't consider Jedi at all, since Nar Shaddaa was Black Sun and Huttspace.

Then Cryax smirked at Lisa Ticon who was quite frankly, a little bit scary. He once watched her gleefully Force-electrify her own cousin at the Dragon Palace casino. The oddest thing was that Ticons considered those types of brawls friendly family discussions.

"Yep, the ship's due to dock any minute now. Time to lock and load."

[member="Lisa Ticon"] [member="Nei Laa"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus sighed. Her effort was better than last time but only marginally. Looking to Kana she said, "Perhaps I should be more focussed on the here and now. Once we land we can get this stuff unloaded and see what we can do to help out. I'm sure it will be nothing like Taboon."

[member="Cryax Bane"] | [member="Lisa Ticon"] | [member="Nei Laa"] | [member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

“That’s usually my problem, you know…” Kana laughed. “Just keep going at it, I need to go check how long we’ve got left until we reach our destination.”

She gave Corvus an apology in the form of a shrug and slowly back off before turning around into a jog for the bridge. Each metal clang as her boots helped her make her way. Force Light was not her strong suit. She wasn’t running away from it, Kana simply had other things to check on.

As she entered the bridge she was welcomed by the sight of the ship leaving hyperspace. Nal Hutta in all it’s might stood firm in front of the windows. It was still funny to her how a planet could be under one faction yet it’s moon another. Well, enough with that. Realizing they had in fact reached their destination she opened the ship-wide comms.

“Sorry to cut the practice short, but we’ve arrived.” She brushed the dust off the device. How long was it since this had even been used if ever? “I’m going to need you up here.”

Kana took her seat in the pilot’s seat and began preparations for a landing. The comm unit woke up once more as they approached. The ever distinct voice of a rodian chimed up and asked for the clearances and certificates and all that. Not that Kana had a single clue what they were talking about but she imagined they knew about the medicine they were delivering.

She transmitted the information and got cleared in return. Docking Bay 45. It seemed as good of a spot as any, right? Maybe a bit further from the camp than she would have wanted but it could have been worse. Actually, no it couldn’t. Block for block the feeling got worse and she reached out for the the communications device. She had to message the watchman, something didn’t feel right here.

<<This is Kana Truden of the Jedi Order. We’re landing at Docking Bay 45. See you there.>>

She put the device aside and remained carefully optimistic. Maybe she was just imagining things. Still, it was best to tell the one person who was looking over the planet about their arrival. A fellow jedi at that.

The ship eventually set down and Kana approached Corvus as she mentioned unloading the ship. Kana pressed the button for the loading ramp to open. Slowly but steadily the mechanical whine made itself heard before coming to a stop. The ramp was open and Kana took her first few steps up to see if anyone was there to receive them.

Her welcome might have been a bit less ‘nice’ than she would have wanted...

[ [member="The Dark Man"] | [member="Corvus Raaf"] | [member="Cryax Bane"] | [member="Lisa Ticon"] | [member="Nei Laa"] ]​

 

[Nei Laa]

[member="Kana Truden"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Cryax Bane"] [member="Lisa Ticon"]

Black Suns... Nei bared her teeth slightly at the name, twitching one of her head tresses. The shortest one, to be precise. Screw Imps; now Nei wanted it to be a Sun so she could shoot them in the name of her poor injured head tress. Yeah, that sounds like a good enough excuse, she decided.

As for the payload, well, if it really was a "karkload", then Nei would be one happy Nautolan.

"I'm always ready," she growled. Switching off the safety on her blasters, Nei put her visor down and turned on her internal comlink. "Let's go steal some drugs."

 

[Cryax Bane]

At the ship's arrival, Cryax felt a surge of adrenaline running through his veins. It was go time. He pulled his blaster from its holster, holding it away from him as he clicked off the safety. As the loading ramp opened, a petite blonde woman emerged with a quizzical look on her face. There was no time to play guessing games about the whereabouts of the rest of her crew. Right now every second mattered.

The Chiss stepped forward, flanked by Nei and Lisa, both displaying generous amounts of firepower, and leveled the blaster at the woman, his glowing red eyes trained on her face. He lifted the corner of his mouth into a crooked smile.

"So, here's the deal. This is a little operation we like to call a rip and run. We rip you off, and you run." Cryax grinned. "If you play by the rules, no one gets hurt. Rule number one. We get all the drugs on your ship, and anything else interesting we might find. Rule number two. You do everything we say, and you get to live. Simple and easy to follow, right? Now drop your weapons and get on your karking knees."

[member="Nei Laa"] [member="Kana Truden"] [member="Corvus Raaf"] [member="Lisa Ticon"] [member="The Dark Man"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus was a few steps behind Kana. As the doors opened, Corvus expected to hear Kana's voice - telling her all about the port they'd arrived at and how her new tunic was ideal for the climate.

Instead two things happened simultaneously. Firstly Corvus felt a disturbance in the Force. Kana was in danger. No, scratch that - they were both in danger. The second was a man's voice.

Corvus didn't doubt Kana could handle a few local thugs - but, at the moment, the balance of power was in the hands of the thieves. By hanging back, she retained an element of surprise - evening the odds ever so slightly. Why oh why did she have to mention the odds?

So she waited out of eyeline and listened to see how Kana was going to play this.

[member="Cryax Bane"] |[member="Lisa Ticon"] | [member="Nei Laa"] | [member="Kana Truden"]

 

[Kana Truden]

Kana remained calm as the man pointed his gun at her. She sternly stared him down. To hold a jedi at gunpoint and expecting them to just hand the supplies over was a despicable act. Then again, she would have expected as such on Nar Shaddaa. The strong preying on the weaker as criminals claimed what was ‘rightfully theirs’. In a sense it was how history seemed to work but she’d be damned if she let it happen again.

“No, I am giving you the chance to put your weapons down and leave this area.” Kana crossed her arms and continued staring at the blue man in front of her. “The supplies are going to the refugee camp. There are people who actually need these things for their intended purpose, you know.”

She gave the two henchmen a look each as her arms unfolded. A nautolan and a human. They were both well-armed and in reality this was a fight that didn’t look like it was particularly much in the Jedi’s favor but that could change.

“I imagine that you are well aware of the repercussions that comes with stealing from the Republic, let alone the Jedi Order.” She shook her head. They hadn’t done anything yet, but that could change as well. “Turn back. Forget about all this.”

[ [member="Corvus Raaf"] | [member="Cryax Bane"] | [member="Lisa Ticon"] | [member="Nei Laa"] ]​