First Reply Criminal Intent

[Valery Noble]

Nar Shaddaa

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Outfit: Smuggler outfit
Weapons: Blasters

Nar Shaddaa had never needed a major galactic power to make it dangerous. The Black Syndicate had fallen from the position it once held, but Valery knew better than to assume that meant organized crime had weakened with it. Power simply changed hands. Hutts still controlled fortunes, smugglers still moved anything for the right price, and countless smaller organizations were eager to claim whatever territory had been left behind. If Valery wanted to understand the Galaxy she had returned to, she needed to know who controlled its shadows as well.

That investigation had been going rather well until somebody started shooting at her.

Valery pressed herself against the corner of a durasteel building as another blaster bolt tore past, showering the alley with sparks. Her white shirt was stained from the grime and rain, sleeves rolled above her elbows, while a leather shoulder holster kept her second pistol close. She leaned out and fired twice. The first bolt dropped a man behind a stack of crates. The second struck the weapon from another thug's hand before a follow-up shot sent him sprawling.

Then there was finally silence.

"Could've just answered my questions," Valery muttered.

She lowered the blaster and stepped over one of the fallen attackers, eyes scanning the neon-lit street ahead. There would be more coming. People didn't start a firefight on Nar Shaddaa without somebody eventually taking an interest, and Valery had no intention of being around when reinforcements arrived.

Her pistol disappeared back into its holster as she slipped into another alley and picked up her pace. Dark hair swayed behind her in a high ponytail while she moved between crowds, market stalls and service passages, all in an attempt to make her route difficult to follow. The Force helped her feel for danger ahead, but she resisted the temptation to disappear entirely.

Someone had ordered those men after her and she wanted to know who it was.

First reply
(Preference for underworld characters)​

 

[Kael Werda]

LOCATION: Nar Shaddaa | WEARING: xxx | EQUIPMENT: x | x

Nar Shaddaa had a way of announcing trouble before trouble ever bothered introducing itself. Sometimes it was blaster fire. Sometimes it was the way a crowd suddenly decided there was somewhere else it needed to be. This time, I got both.

The shots echoed somewhere ahead, sharp enough to cut through the usual noise of speeders, vendors, bad music, and worse decisions. People started peeling away from one of the side streets without looking back. Nobody screamed. That would have required surprise. I kept walking. Gunfire on Nar Shaddaa wasn't exactly breaking news, and most days getting involved in somebody else's mess was just an efficient way of making sure the mess became yours.

Then Valery Noble stepped out of the alley, and that changed the math.

I knew the face. Hard not to. Some people carried reputations like perfume. Others carried them like a loaded blaster. Valery was the second kind. She moved fast without looking hurried, slipping through the crowd and changing direction just enough to make anyone following her work for it. There was something else in the way she moved, though. She never quite vanished, even though I was willing to bet she could have.

I watched her disappear around another corner and felt the corner of my mouth pull upward. "You want them to follow you." Of course she did.

Two men shoved past me a few seconds later. Neither looked directly at her, which might have been the first smart decision either of them made. One checked her position in the reflection of a storefront while the other kept a hand too close to the inside of his coat. They moved like men trying very hard not to look like they were following someone, which meant they weren't very good at it. I gave them enough distance to feel comfortable before falling in behind.

The promenade narrowed into one of the older service corridors, where exposed pipes hugged the walls and condensation fell from overhead like the moon itself was sweating. Neon bled down from the levels above and painted everything in reds, blues, and lies. Valery turned another corner. The two men followed, but when I reached the intersection a few seconds later only one of them kept moving.

The other stayed behind.

Rear guard. Better. Maybe the people hunting her had finally found someone with half a brain.

He leaned against the wall and pretended to care about whatever was on the datapad in his hand while I walked toward him. He looked up when I got close. "You lost?"

"No."

I kept moving. His hand disappeared beneath his coat, and there it was. I caught his wrist before he cleared the weapon and drove him into the wall hard enough to knock the question out of his mouth. The blaster slipped free. I caught it before it hit the ground and pressed the barrel beneath his jaw.

"Who sent you?"

He answered with a knee aimed at my ribs. I turned enough to let it miss and buried an elbow into his stomach. He folded against the wall, fighting for air.

"Always appreciate a man who values conversation."

Footsteps scraped against duracrete farther down the passage. His partner had finally figured out something was wrong and came back around the corner with his blaster already clearing its holster. I fired first. The bolt caught the weapon and sent it clattering across the alley. My second shot struck the wall beside his head, showering him with sparks.

He stopped moving. Smartest thing he'd done all night.

I looked toward the far end of the corridor. If Valery hadn't already felt what was happening behind her, then every story I'd heard about her had been badly exaggerated. "Your friends are improving," I called out. "These two figured out that following someone works better when you don't start by shooting at them."

I kept the stolen blaster low but ready as she came back into view. There were some people you met for the first time and still felt like you already knew. Reputation did that. So did trouble.

"Valery Noble." I glanced at the man trying to remember how breathing worked beside me, then at his partner standing several meters away with his hands very carefully visible. "You're either having a productive night, or Nar Shaddaa's hospitality standards have really gone downhill."

My attention settled back on her. "So which is it?"

TAG: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

Nar Shaddaa

​

Outfit: Smuggler outfit
Weapons: Blasters

Valery made it another block before she realized the footsteps behind her had disappeared. She slowed and glanced back over her shoulder as her senses reached through the maze of alleys behind her. The men were still there, but something had interrupted their pursuit. Someone had interrupted it. Curiosity won out, and Valery turned around to retrace her steps, one hand resting near the blaster at her hip as she followed the commotion back toward its source.

She found a scene she hadn't expected.

One of her pursuers was folded against the wall trying to catch his breath, while the other had apparently discovered a sudden appreciation for keeping his hands visible. Between them stood a man Valery didn't recognize. Tall, strong and rugged enough that he looked perfectly at home among Nar Shaddaa's grime and neon. The blaster in his hand certainly helped complete the image.

Thunder rolled somewhere above the endless cityscape. Valery glanced upward as the first drops of rain found their way between the towering structures, tapping against pipes and duracrete. A proper storm was coming. Wonderful.

"Probably both," Valery answered as she looked back at him, a smirk tugging at her lips. "I've been productive enough to upset several people, and I don't remember Nar Shaddaa ever being particularly famous for its hospitality." Her gaze shifted toward the two men before returning to the stranger. She wasn't upset that he'd interfered. If anything, having somebody else catch her pursuers saved her the trouble of doing it herself. What interested her more was why he'd bothered at all.

Valery stepped closer, posture relaxed despite everything that had just happened. Rain began to darken her white shirt around the shoulders, as skin began to show through the fabric, but she paid it little attention. Her orange eyes instead studied him with open curiosity.

"You know my name," she said. "But I don't know yours."

Her head tilted slightly.

"So, who are you?"

Kael Werda ​

 

[Kael Werda]

LOCATION: Nar Shaddaa | WEARING: xxx | EQUIPMENT: x | x

Rain had a way of making Nar Shaddaa look cleaner than it was. That was the lie of it, anyway. The first drops came down through the maze of towers and pipes, darkening the duracrete and turning the neon into long streaks of color underfoot. I let the blaster hang low at my side while Valery Noble walked back toward me like finding two men neutralized in an alley was only mildly interesting.

Maybe for her it was.

"Probably both," she said.

That got the faintest hint of a smile out of me.

"Sounds about right."

She stepped closer and asked the obvious question.

Who are you?

I looked at her for a second, then past her toward the mouth of the alley. Nobody else had appeared yet, but Nar Shaddaa rewarded patience almost as often as it punished stupidity.

"Names are expensive around here."

I crouched beside the man still trying to get his breathing under control and pulled the power pack from his blaster before tossing the weapon aside. His partner watched me do it and made no move to interfere.

Another smart choice.

"You already got the useful part," I added as I straightened. "I'm the man who stopped these two from putting a hole in the back of that shirt."

My eyes returned to her.

There was no point pretending I hadn't noticed the rest of the situation. Valery Noble did not accidentally find herself being hunted through Nar Shaddaa. People like her came places like this because they were looking for something, and usually whatever they were looking for was the kind of thing everyone else preferred stayed buried.

That made me curious. Curiosity was usually a bad habit.

I had a few.

"You weren't trying very hard to lose them."

It wasn't a question.

I leaned one shoulder against the wall and folded my arms, leaving the stolen blaster loose in one hand.

"Which means you wanted them close enough to lead you somewhere."

Thunder rolled above us. I glanced at the two men.

"Or you wanted one of them alive long enough to start talking."

The one against the wall suddenly found the ground fascinating.

Interesting.

I filed that away.

"So before we worry about introductions, maybe you tell me what has enough of your attention that you're letting hired muscle chase you through the lower levels."

I watched her expression carefully, not because I expected her to lie, but because everyone lied eventually. Some were just better at deciding which truth to use instead.

"And depending on the answer…" I paused, then looked briefly toward the two men before settling my attention back on her. "Maybe I decide I don't mind being owed a favor by Valery Noble."

That earned another faint smile from me.

"Seems like the kind of thing worth keeping in your pocket."

TAG: Valery Noble