Like A Meteor Stuck in the Mud (Black Sun!!)

[Barrett Haskins]

Nal Hutta

Fire shot through the murky air like a mynock out of chaos, the smell of burning machinery soon followed…something crashed. If anyone had been close enough to see what had happened they would know an escape pod had hurdled down from above, crashing through the planet’s atmosphere and making haste toward its crust. Escape pods weren’t an uncommon thing on a planet inhabited by gangsters; they knocked ships out of the sky all the time. Surviving the crash was probably the easiest part of escaping, given the raiders and mercenaries who would strip everything in the pod for scrap and sell the person inside without even blinking. It was a rough life to live in the criminal underworld, but somehow the capacious Corellian smuggler always found his way back on his feet…eventually.

A pack of cigarettes and a smile was all Barrett needed to stay above water, the rest of the galaxy could drown for all he cared, but as long as he could hide behind a plume of smoke and a dashing set of pearly whites he could cruise along without a hitch. This was, of course, unless he got kidnapped by pirates, who took offense to anything dashing and generally stole any cigarettes or other smokeable things they happened upon. It was suffice to say that getting ejected out of their ship in an escape pod without being strapped in was the nicest thing they did for him. Though the landing was anything but graceful, at least he was off of their ship. It took them long enough to realize he was of no use for what they were looking for, that and his elevated status in the crime syndicate made him a hazardous target to kill.

They kept him long enough to teach him a lesson, long enough to show him he had more to lose than he thought. They beat him and tortured him, but they never got close to ending him, they made him know he was going to live to see another thrashing. Being the pirates they were they constantly asked him questions to get his money, like where he lived on Nar Shaddaa, where his credits were and how to access them, important codes from the Black Suns, all things he wouldn’t tell his allies, least of all his kidnappers. After a certain amount of time it got to the point where the pirate lackeys were simply enjoying it, getting off on watching someone who used to have so much be trapped right under their heel. Barrett's pain and blood was a power trip for the weak willed crew.

All the bruises and scars would heal, they could fade with time, but the knowledge that he was so vulnerable would stick with Barrett longer than any physical scar. He would likely have nightmares about the ordeal for a while, feeling claustrophobic all the time, un-trusting toward the galaxy. Though it wouldn't matter much if he couldn't make it back to where he came from. The pirate scum were nice enough to drop him directly on Nal Hutta, but they didn’t care enough to aim so he was lucky he didn’t land on a building or on one of the fat Hutts that were peppered throughout the planet. The pirates took away his weapons and his ship, likely selling it just as quick as they got it, leaving him defenseless on a planet swimming with criminals. Death by hungry criminals willing to do whatever it took was certainly a death sentence worse than execution by pirates.

The smuggler was wounded and he needed help, but more than that he needed to get away from ground zero, the crash site was the most dangerous place for him to be. Barrett Haskins gathered his strength to make it out of the ship, hobbling his way out of the wreckage, it wouldn’t be long before he would be too weak to walk. He decided it would be safest to rest in one of the sewage pipes and wait until something happened or he was eaten by a Chemilizard, whatever happened it was safer to seek asylum in a dirty pipe than it was to be a sitting duck.

"I really need a karking cigarette." He hummed miserably to himself as he slumped over in his pipe.

 

[Lex Matako]

@[member="Barrett Haskins"]
Meanwhile, in orbit on the other side of Nal Hutta

The Nautolan smuggler whistled to himself slightly as he went through a magazine on new ship models and parts, his ship, the Lady Luck, was on autopilot, heading towards one of nearby spaceports.
That was until on his comm-transmitter Lex started to pick up chatter about a nearby crash, well not nearby exactly, it was on the other side of the planet, his green ears perked up, or at least the tentacles close to here his ears should be, as he sat up.

He bit his lip slightly, looking back somewhere into his ship where the cargo-hold was.
"Hrm."
He said to himself as he looked back to consoles and sighed
"Eh, what the Chaos, payment can wait."
He grinned that brilliant Nautolan grin as he gripped the steering stick and shut off the autopilot
"There is adventure to be had!"
And so he adjusted his course to start heading towards the crash site, although it would be few moments more before he would get there.

 

[Barrett Haskins]

It did not take long for the smell to burn the smuggler's nose, he had been off of the 'glorious jewel' for a number of months even before he got captured, long enough for his nose to forget how rancid the planet smelled. Corellians generally had a high tolerance for bad smells considering how unclean some of their own kind were, but the fog of stale air that encompassed the planet was another level. It was abundantly clear why he had chosen to stay far away. Nar Shaddaa was a much nicer home, not without its own unique smells however, they were just far more manageable than Nal Hutta.

Soon after Barrett started breathing through his mouth to ease his problems he heard the undeniable sounds of people passing through overhead, footsteps made their way toward the escape pod. From his position inside the pipe, Barrett could hear most of what was happening, it sounded like a couple of groups had arrived at the same time. He heard at least one speeder off in the distance along with chatter and the people walking above him. He couldn't tell how many nor did he care to, he wanted nothing to do with any of them, they could take whatever they wanted from the craft and leave.

The tattered and wounded man was in no position to engage them anyhow, his injuries were more severe than he had thought. Part of him was stuck on trying to move forward and the other part of him was busy praying that he didn't die in the stench and filth of a planet he once overlooked. There was a chance some of the people at the escape pod were Black Sun affiliated, in fact it was quite possible they were the ones these people would be stripping it down for anyways, but the chance they were just thugs was equally as high. Those were odds even Haskins didn't want to take just yet. Something would happen, it always did in these situations, maybe they'd weed themselves out.

@[member="Lex Matako"]

 

[Lex Matako]

@[member="Barrett Haskins"]
Well the something Barret was waiting was a squid-person in a spaceship.

Lights would beam from the sky at the crash sight as the Lady Luck, Lex's ship started to close in on it from above. Foliage and trees rustled in the currents created by the ship's engines. Dust was blown, the large whirring noise of the engines filled the air and echoed.
The space ship had few guns visible, which would be enough to scare off most simple thugs or scavengers, but they weren't powered, not yet at least.

Lex hovered there in his ship few seconds more before he reached over to the microphone for his speakers system, turning it on.
"Hello?"
He blasted from the speakers outside
"This is Lex Matako, smuggler and pilot in service of Lady Domino of the Black Suns, looking to help any survivors, over."
He paused a second
"And I mean actually help, I'm not one of those people who says 'help' and then when you turn your back they jump on you saying something like 'ha-ha, I meant that I will help you to die,' that's not the kind of a person I am, but then again, they would probably said something like this to begin with- I should stop talking."
The microphone switched off again as Lex scanned the immediate area, looking how many people were down on the surface and what kind of ship crashed, he didn't knew right away whether it was an escape pod or not.

 

[Barrett Haskins]

Lady Domino of the Black Suns? That was a phrase Barrett was all too happy to hear. It was nice to know that in his absence the brilliant Twi’lek had taken the helm, he felt better knowing the faction wasn’t inherited by a greedy Hutt or some other monster of ill repute that roamed the galaxy. Then the rest of the sentence rang through Haskin’s ears. It was hard to tell if the voice was trying to be very coy about being a slaver, or if he was being serious in his brutal honesty about how shady he sounded. There was a reason Barrett was so paranoid, and finding himself launched out of a ship in an escape pod only to crash to the planet below was the main one. There had been multiple times where he had been tricked into trusting someone or tricked by someone he trusted that the young smuggler had started to only trust himself and and his Corellian instincts.

In the same breath however, it takes a lot of balls to drop a ship in the middle of a clearing and boast your allegiance, knowing you have to have the firepower to back it up on this planet. That was something that rang through every Black Sun from Domino all the way down the the lowest lackey, you had to have a backbone to be a good criminal. There was a tinge of hope sparking inside Barrett, a flame long suffocated by the cruel galaxy. The rapscallion still considered himself an eternal optimist, however he had started to get more real with himself the older he got…something he wasn’t too happy about. Perhaps this was the chance to feed that small spark, to ignite the long wick still left to burn in the Smuggler’s heart, or perhaps he had been burned too many times already?

There was only a few more seconds to react before someone else did, someone either trying to help or hinder the Black Sun, either way, someone would draw this potential lifeline’s attention away. Being the ‘following your gut’ kind of guy Barrett was, he hobbled his way out of the pipe, attempting to swing his way back around to the far side of the bridge to make it seem as though he were approaching from the woods too just in case it turned out to be a bloodbath they may not notice him. If they did see him it would be abundantly clear he was the one in the crash, his face was beaten and brusied , his ribs were in a lot of pain, he had a limp, and to top it off, no weapon. Here goes nothing was the last thought he had before he passed through the trees, directly toward the ship ahead. He knew this wasn’t going to go how he had hoped it would. It never did these days. Luck was a demanding mistress, don’t pay enough attention to her and the nice things she does for you, she bites your bantha’s end. Hard.

@[member="Lex Matako"]

 

[Lex Matako]

@[member="Barrett Haskins"]
Lex was standing slightly above his seat as he was peering from above the dashboard at anything out of ordinary he could notice.
He shook his head as nothing took his attention right now, clenching his jaw slightly, it seems that all the thugs and scavengers have turned tail and ran when he arrived.
The Nautolan sighed and collapsed back into his seat as he was about to leave when suddenly-

He crunched his brow slightly, was that movement?
He stood up from his seat once more, looking closer at it, yes, yes!
He smiled as he saw somebody walking closer from the trees at the direction of his ship. Lex pushed in a couple of buttons on his controls, activating a landing pilot, extending the ramp and turning the ship around in a landing procedure so that entrance to it would face Barrett's position.

Barrett would see the ship turn sideways as airlock to it opened and the figure of the Nautolan smuggler stood in the doorway, walking outwards on the extending ramp
"Hey there!"
Lex called out to him
"Are you alright? Did you see maybe what happened he- Force blessed craps, no offense but you look like Sith. And I don't mean the religious group either!"

The ship would finally hit the ground with a thud as it landed, the engines powering down, Lex walked closer to Barrett from the ramp

"What happened out here? You probably heard my introduction, but I'm Lex, smuggler with Black Suns for the time being, working with Lady Domino from time to time."
He looked over the man slightly, offering him his hand

 

[Barrett Haskins]

The mercenaries and thugs had pretty well left the area, maybe the Black Suns had scared away all the small time thugs, or perhaps none of them wanted to taste the wrong end of a blaster cannon. Either way, when the Nautolan started his descent Barrett sighed in relief, he had never met a Nautolan he didn’t like.

“My name is Barrett Haskins, I’m a friend of Lady Domino, too.” He wheezed a little afterward, at least one of his ribs was broken that was for sure. “I could really use some help,” He coughed a little bit, the adrenaline was starting to ware off, “I got in some trouble with some people and found myself in the dirt.” This time when he coughed a little bit of blood came out. He needed somewhere to sit before he feinted.

@[member="Lex Matako"]

 

[Lex Matako]

@[member="Barrett Haskins"]
Lex was about to open his mouth to ask more questions but he sprang to action when he saw blood coming out from Barret's mouth instead
"Well you are pretty nicely battered, I'm no doctor but I should have some bacta in my first aid kit at least."
He would offer to help Barrett along the boarding ramp
"I was about to say your name sounds familiar, were you ever with the Protectorate or the Suns?"
Lex asked along the way, should Barrett follow that is, although he did not had that many options currently.

Abord the ship, Lex would have Barrett sit on a mildly comfortable couch in the ship's meeting/social/living room while the Nautolan went through his utility closets and compartments looking for the first aid kit
"I don't really have that many guests aboard, or get into that many fights, I should probably keep those things closer at hand, in hindsight."

 

[Barrett Haskins]

It was a pain to even breathe by the time Lex helped him aboard he couldn’t answer his question until he stumbled atop the medical bed. With a short and tempered breath Barrett whimpered, “I’m just a Sun.” Then he fell unconscious soon after, his mind wandering its own vast expanses while his body sat there.

It wouldn’t be hard to get him up and healthy again, but something needed to be done soon. A bacta bath was in order, that was for sure.

@[member="Lex Matako"]

 

[Lex Matako]

@[member="Barrett Haskins"]
"Dammit."
Lex cringed and muttered under his breath, finally finding the first-aid kit, pulling it up nearby Barrett and opening it up.
The Nautolan would take out a breathing mask with a capsule of bacta gas attached to it. Putting it over Barreth's face and strapping it on securely with elastic bands he squeezed plastic inhalation system, initiating intake of healing gas
"Come on, Sun, breath it in."
Lex muttered, hoping this would help to wake up Barrett and help his respiratory systems while they would get to a hospital.

Speaking of which, Lex left the mask attached to Barret's face, bacta gas pumping out slowly in small doses as he went up to the cockpit.
Powering up the ship's engine, Lex would pull it up, setting course towards the nearest hospital on the planet.

 

[Barrett Haskins]

Barrett was still alive, breathing in the bacta slowly but surely. It would keep him stable, but for the most part until he saw a doctor he wouldn't be much help otherwise. Luckily for Barrett, Lex likely knew where he was going and would take him to a real medical facility on Nal Hutta rather than one of the Hutt owned concentration camps of IV's and life support where you went to neither live nor die. Instead the slugs just got rich off the expenses of keeping the people alive.

Barrett's breaths were short, but they were there.

@[member="Lex Matako"]