Mighty

[Jairus Starvald]

“No, thank you.” Ceri responded absentmindedly after a few moments. “My physiology doesn’t need more than a few hours of sleep a day.”

“I appreciate the concern, though.”

It wasn’t particularly clear if Cerita understood the underlying meaning of Verin’s suggestion, but considering she wasn’t a real ‘people’-person it wouldn’t be surprising if the discomfort went completely over the woman’s head.

At the same time it could very well be that the lady knew exactly what Runi was feeling right now. Perhaps this was just her way of being difficult in the face of slight petty revenge, maybe she was trying to play the same game? Again, it was difficult to say, because her face didn’t show anything else than simple curiosity towards the stars.

“What will you do with the money, when we find the treasure?”

Her eyes were still locked outside towards the viewport, but there was this particular feeling that her attention had shifted once again.

[member="Runi Verin"]

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

“Not much.” She gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “Couple of weeks pay, doubled, would go a long way to settling a few debts and landing fees. Maybe leave me enough over to fund a salvage op or at least cover my end.”

The recent shift of battle lines around the core systems and outlying sectors had proven to be a boon for her line of work as of late, with countless capital ships and other vessels just begging to be salvaged. The most prize targets would likely be picked clean several times over in the next few weeks, but Runi had confidence should could source at least one viable prospect from the mix if she had enough backing.

“If you’re right about the treasure….”

Kark, if the tales of the vaults were even half right, she couldn’t even imagine what she would do with that kind of money. What she could do. Wealth like that reached into the realms of the inconceivable. Forget about salvaging, she could buy the ships several times over and still have enough to live out any life of her choosing. Never having to look over her shoulder for the next debt collector or bounty hunter sent her way.

“Fierfek, maybe buy station out in the middle of nowhere. Set up my own salvaging firm or something. Live however rich people live, I guess.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

“In my experience… rich people live life exactly how ordinary people do: on a constant quest for more and more.” Her thoughts went back to Verd for a moment, before shrugging finally and delicately raising herself from her seat.

“I have taken up enough of your patience for now though, so I will retreat to my room.”

Unless Runi had anything more to say she would nod and leave the cockpit behind, before making the trip over to her room - only sparingly passing by the hangar, poking in a head and noticing that the Tuk’ata were having the time of their life going through the mess Verin had left her hangar in. Some kind of do dat’s scattered around, pieces of scavenged tech and other critter just waiting around for someone to pick them up.

She shook her head just a fraction, a mother more flustered than anything.

Before moving on to her room.

It would be a marginally long trip, but Ceri had a few of her own projects to tinker on in the meanwhile.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

Runi lapsed into a comfortable silence after Cerita vacated the cockpit. Solitude was an old and trusted friend for the mechanic; one she welcomed with open arms given her current choice in travelling companions. The dark and twisted emanations rolling off the Tuk’ata made her skin crawl, yet it was Sarova that troubled her the most. What else was she hiding behind those green eyes? The woman seemed to know all about her, yet conversely Runi knew next to nothing in return. Save for her obvious tastes in questionable science and apparent borderline psychopathic personality traits.

She grunted sourly as she shifted in her seat once more, boots returning to the dashboard console as she sealed the cockpit with a flick of a switch. The heavy blast doors making a reassuring clunk as they locked into place behind her. Lacking someone to watch her back, she had to take the small comforts where could.

Once satisfied that no one was going to be breaking into the cockpit any time soon, she settled in to meditative trance, trusting that the Boracyk would get them there in one piece without the need for too much oversight or micromanagement.

********​

​

“We’re two minutes out from real space reversion,” She piped up over the comm system, her voice sounding tinny as it bounced around the rust bucket of a ship via the compartmental speakers. The doors slid open with a faint whisper. “Now would be a great time to tell me you thought ahead and already paid the digging permit. ”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Tartaglia.

That was their destination this time around. The Tartaglia System - aptly named for the one ‘valuable’ world it called its own - was one of five star systems in the Hollan Sector, which was comfortably situated in the Mid Rim. That one had always been home to the hard-nosed workers of the Galaxy, but these days… well, with the Core burning and nations squabbling there was little to no oversight what happened to the refugees, what the Underworld and the Corporations did or what the planets themselves were up to.

Tartaglia, then. It was a world known for one thing and one thing only, mostly. The Nova Vaults of Kakitai bel Toyouin- its crust was riddled with chasms, gorges, sinkholes and other marks of excavation efforts.

Little of that happened these days, with most people completely certain that the legends were just that.

Legends.

But there are always those who are curious and naive, and where the curious and naive crossed you could always count upon some to try and profit off of it. A cartel had spun up on Tartaglia, its entire purpose was to guide the ‘tourism’ the planet attracted.

It supplied permits for mining, made specific mining zones to ensure safety and even provided equipment for those not in the possession of their own- at a price, of course.

But there was one thing that Ceri knew instinctively. If someone managed to find this treasure by some wonder… she doubted this Cartel would allow them to leave with it just like that, there was a great chance of further taxation, further harassment and then further extermination.

As always the Apprentice of the three paranoid and best Alchemists that had graced this Galaxy came prepared.

---​

“Of course.” Her voice came back eventually over the comms. “I am paying you a fortune to ferry me back and forth, their permit was the least of my issues.”

---​

That same Cartel had build a space station over the world. Nothing too fancy, but with enough turbolasers that you couldn’t just bustle your way into their ecosystem without paying dearly for it.

They would have to go through there, before taking a shuttle down.

Standard procedure. Surely they understood?

[member="Runi Verin"]

 

[Runi Verin]

“’lek?” She cut back as she transmitted the requisite codes to the control station, mentally calculating just how long it would take to spool up the hyperdrive if they turned out to be bogus. Probably not fast enough for the Cartels. They strangely tended to frown on people trying to screw them over. Not the only ones in that regard. “Well, maybe if you tried to be a little more up front when hiring me, you could’ve saved yourself a pretty hefty slice of creds in the process.”

Fortunately, while [member="Cerita Sarova"] had failed to be on the level, the codes she provided appeared to be genuine enough. A fact confirmed by the return confirmation she received from the controller and the way that the fast attack corvette that had been dogging the Boracyk’s shadow since they entered the system peeled off to return to its standby station. Coordinates for the hanger and recommended flight path followed soon after. When faced with such an overwhelming difference in firepower, Runi wisely opted to follow it to the letter for once in her life.

----
​

A faint hiss escaped the hydraulics as the landing ramp descended onto the hanger bay floor, one of the loping Tuk’ata stealing her captain’s privilege of disembarking first, the rest of the pack preforming a sound that she assumed was a snicker. She was starting to get a handle on their personality now. They were like twisted evil imps with too much time on their hands - Kark knows what they had done to her hanger bay – but at least they would prove useful with a show of force where the cartel was concerned. Even the most hardened thugs tended to shy away when greeted with something that looked something akin to primal terror personified.

“Three weeks,” She reminded Cerita as the dockmaster approached them, no doubt looking for a bribe so that the Boracyk was still here when they returned. “You ‘ve got three weeks to find that treasure, cheeka. After that, I’m hitting the hyperlanes, with or without you.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]​

~ ~ ~​

Six Days Later​

~ ~ ~​

"HA! I KNEW IT!!" a sudden shout would rage through the pavilion set up in the desert of Tartaglia. It had been trying days with low morale and a whole lot of annoyances keeping them awake at night- the first night it had been the mosquitoes harassing them for hours on end, until Ceri crafted an amulet that would repel them.

Then there were the bandits roaming around, the endless slinky ways of other scavengers trying to encroach on their territory (which was, incidentally, the reason why Runi was also here. She was far more experienced in dealing with those, and deal with them she did on numerous occasions.) and the occasional earthquakes which forced them to relocate at times. Who knew that drilling holes and breaking off parts of the planet in search for treasure could make the entire tectonic composition unstable?

"Freaking knew it." Cerita mumbled quietly to herself, while watching the readings from her datapad. The sand termites had homed in on the prize and were already trying to eat away at the thick durasteel walls separating the vaults from the outside world - without much success, of course, she had ensured that they wouldn't be able to just eat their prize up like that.

"Cheeka, get your karking ass in here, we frakking found it!"

One curse after another rolled from her tongue like there ain't no tomorrow. In the week they had been here they had... 'bonded' together, so to speak, there wasn't anything quite like shared grievances and trouble to forge something akin to a friendship.

Well that and Ceri finally managed to stop acting like a sociopathic serial killer, so there was that too.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]​

Six days.

They had felt like an eternity on this forceforsaken rock. Baked beneath a ruthless sun during the day, frozen by the desert winds by night. Then there were the bloodsucking insects that seemed to thrive in this hellish environment, seeming to etch out an existence purely on the poor, unfortunate idiots that sought that blasted treasure. Kark knows there wasn’t much else living on this planet. Not anymore, anyway. After millennia of digs and expeditions, it was starting to resemble Kessel. Just without the charm.

She had almost welcomed the distraction the bandits had presented at first. A chance to stretch her legs and work out some of the frustration that invariably set in after a few hours planetside. After the first dozen or so cracked skulls, however, the appeal had started to wear a little thin. Even Cerita’s Tuk’ata minions appeared to be flagging with each successive raid on their encampment repelled, proving that even sithspawn had a limit on how many eviscerations, beheadings and impalements they could sit through before it became old. Kark, even Runi was feeling a little numb to the butchery now.

She was even numb to the cries of success Cerita issued every now and then, the successive string false alarms generated by those little… creatures she had unleashed on the unsuspecting ecosystem robbing the rush of adrenaline she had once felt. Still she dutifully ducked into the pavilion as the woman’s voice rang out, truth be told more eager for the excuse to get out of the sun more than anything. The Tuk’ata would watch the perimeter.

“You said that last yesterday – and the time before – and what did it turn out to be?” The brunette snorted dismissively as she reached for the datapad. The readout meant little to her, but she wasn’t about to admit that. She might have warmed up to Cerita the last few days, or at least as warm as she became with anyone, but there was still a twinge of resentment towards the woman for lying to her initially. She could nurse a grudge like a nexu with a bad tooth. “A karking crane drill and a blasted shipping container. So you gotta forgive me if my enthusiasm ain’t what it used to be.”

She glanced up from the pad.

“What makes this time any different, cheeka?”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

The amount of skepticism was expected, of course.

It was only natural after the mistakes they made in the first few days of being here. No, in fact, it would have been unnatural if Runi wasn't at least a little bit less sensitive towards claims of success.

"A couple of false positives were expected," She looked over her shoulder, pointed look apparent. "Like I warned you the moment we set up camp, remember?"

But this wasn't the time to dwell on mistakes or who remembered what. What was important right now, was that this wasn't an false positive and she would bet [member="Dissero"]'s entire archive on that. Well, Ceri probably wouldn't do that, but it was the same difference when it came to her confidence right now.

"Look," She waved with her hand for Runi to come a bit closer, before pointing towards the screen. The information on it was being updated with only a slight lag apparent. "Too huge to be a crane or another shipping container- it isn't a capital ship either, the material is off for that."

If you knew were to look for you could probably tra- well, that wasn't important.

"This is it, Runi. This is it." Confidence was running high. "Get 'em ready, we are going exploring."

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]​

Runi still wasn’t convinced.

But then, she supposed, she didn’t need to be. This was Cerita’s little treasure hunt, after all. She was going to be paid either way; although she’d be lying if she didn’t have a preference on which of the actual sums she would have preferred to be lining her pocket at the end of this little venture.

“Probably some forgotten stretch of the palace.” She thumbed through the readout, the figures blurring as she cycled to the structural composition. That much she could at least understand. “Or Kakitai bel Toyouin’s outhouse knowing our luck.”

Scepticism or not, it still warranted further investigation. If nothing else, it would break up the monotony that was settling over the camp. She had a feeling she wouldn’t want to stick around to find out what happens when a pack of Tuk’ata finally reach the end of their rope. They might have formed a loose alliance when it came to facing down the bandits, but there were still a few lingering, hungry glances now and then that spoiled the illusion that they might actually be getting along.

“Fine, whatever.” The datapad landed on the chart table, “Let’s go take a look at what your little bugs have dug up this time. Just know that there’s a colossal ‘I told you so’ waiting in the wings.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

"Yeah, yeah, get your ass moving. 'Cus I ain't paying you to see your pretty mouth move."

After she left Cerita started to gather up some of the equipment around the desk. There was just this feeling around the last discovery that made her think she wouldn't have time to come back here -- probably too busy loading up their cargo bays with the treasure of ages and laugh about all the shet that had happened before this.

Moment stepped outside the light of the twin suns immediately hit her like a brick wall. That's what happened when you were holed up in there like a hermit for most of the time, your eyes needed to refocus and get used to the sudden light-show. Runi was already ordering the tuk'ata about, who were more amused about it than anything, by the looks of their teethy grins and looks send at each other.

It was about time.

They left ten minutes later on board the digger slash gunship-hybrid. They had gobbled it together, scavenged some parts from other wreckage around here, worked way better than the previous digger they had got for the job.

____​

​

Took them about thirty minutes to get to the location.

Sand... lots of sand, sand everywhere.

It didn't seem to be all that special, but the datapad clearly signaled that the bugs were beneath them.

"Alright, let's start digging."

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

“You know, I don’t seem to remember having a clause on digging in my contract.” The salvager’s boots made a soft thud as she stepped off the digger. Not a bad little ride considering it had taken them all of an afternoon to assemble. “I think there was a lot more talk about sitting around, cooling my heels while the real work was done for us when I signed on the dotted line.”

The endless sea of dunes had sounded a lot better in the initial pitch, too, come to think of it.

Kark, if it was like Tatooine without the character.

“Let’s see what we’ve got first.” She muttered as she dropped a knee, letting her hand hover a few inches over the sun-baked sand. Even at this distance, the heat was almost scorching her flesh through the padded material of her work glove, the discomfort pushed aside as she focused her attention on what lurked beneath the surface.

…

A shudder rippled through her as she butted up against the initial wave of insectoid revulsion that flowed up from below. Cerita’s little pet bugs providing a wholly unwelcome distraction, yet one that quickly passed as she pushed on through, picking up the weak traces of the structure they surrounded and swarmed. The faint residual whispers of memories long since faded, too far gone to reassemble, proved to be confirmation enough that no living soul had been here in an age. Whether or not that was a good thing, however, was still to be seen.

“Fierfek, you might just be on to something. For once.”

She motioned the Tuk’ata to take the lead on the grunt work. With a little luck, even if this didn’t pan out quite the way Cerita hoped, a little physical exertion would keep them placated back at camp.

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

"I am sure that admission must be painful." The girl mumbled out as green eyes peered over the scarf wrapped around her head. A couple of the Tuk'ata lumbered over, one of them jerking his head to the side -- a sign for Runi to take off and let them do the real work -- before they started the dig.

They weren't as careful as Cerita had wanted, but there wasn't much else to do here.

The echo telemetry suggested the... well, the vaults, to be huge. Any passageways or doors were long since rusted down and gone by erosion, only thick, brushed plating left in its wake.

So they had to puncture through the vault wall and that was that. They couldn't be careful about it, couldn't try and preserve the gorram historical value of it, no matter how much Cerita wanted that. They had gone through too much to just let it pass them by, if anyone else caught wind of it before they had properly secured it and were in the 'safe'-zone...

They'd be karked.

"Sisqa." Scarra roared over his shoulder to Cerita. It meant Demon in Sith, his little pet name for her. It was endearing. "We got something here."

Sarova could see a man-sized hole, punctured through the wall and from there... shadows and the dark.

"Sounds like we are in. You wanna stay here and enjoy the sun, or coming with?"

 

[Runi Verin]

“My half of the treasure will go along way to salving the wound,” Runi replied as she stepped out of the path of the ambling Tuk’ata crew, ducking back beneath the cooling shade cast by their jury-rigged transport. A welcome relief. It was hard to identify which was the biggest killer around here. The insects, the bandits or the sun. Even a few minutes beneath its wilting glare was enough to make you feel cooked through. As it was, she only felt as half-baked as this little expedition seemed. “Failing that, an ‘I told you so’ would be a decent consolation prize.”

Trusting the Tuk’ata could at least be reasonably trusted to know which end of the shovel was which without too much oversight, the Mandalorian diverted her attention and her gaze towards the horizon, stretching her senses out past the rolling dunes and rocky outcrops in search of any sentient life. Or at least what passed as sentient in these parts anyway. It was hard to tell with those aforementioned bandits at times.

“There’s a few people a ways to the south,” She added a few minutes later to break the silence, her brow crinkling slightly as she tried in vain to lock them down. Her range was perhaps one of the few things that set her apart as a force user, yet it seemed they were just at the edge of her limit. Too far away to really identify with the swirling distraction of ambient life force beneath her feet. Grimacing thinly, she shifted her focus back to [member="Cerita Sarova"] and work gang just in time to hear Scarra’s announcement.

“Probably just collectors belonging to that moisture farm we passed when we first made it planetside, but might be worth having someone keep an eye on them.” Runi cautioned as she retrieved her gear bag from the side compartment, slinging it over her shoulder as she moved towards the exposed hole. “Kinda getting tired of these sand-eaters trying to get the drop on us.”

And speaking of drops…

Like a pitch black wound in the sand, the hole seemed to absorb even the harsh light of the Tartaglian sun, appearing almost as if a portal to a whole other world. The air smelled sour and stale here. More akin to a crypt than a sewer. Given her recent experiences and run of bad luck in salvaging, she wasn’t sure if that was preferable or not. Or how telling it was that she knew the difference. A dilemma for another time.

“Kark, you better be right about this.” She dropped a neon orange glow stick into the void, a tracer that guided her own descent a few seconds later as the salvager unceremoniously stepped off the sand bank without another word, using the force to cushion her fall. Even then the drop was enough to jar her teeth hard enough to send stars across her vision. Kark, she’d be feeling that one later.

With a grunt she rose from the low crouch she had landed in, moving out of the way just in time to avoid having Scarra flatten her beneath his bulk as he followed her down. She wasn’t sure if his displeased hiss was from the drop or from failing to splat her. Not that they were mutually exclusive. Cast in the blue light of the glow stick, that smile of his was still a few shades short of friendly.

“I really need to start charging more.” She muttered, raising her voice to call up to Cerita. “You joining us, or you just gonna stay up there looking pretty?”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

She briefly studied [member="Runi Verin"]'s expression, before nodding.

"Agreed." Her attention shifted from her towards the remaining tuk'ata waiting for her word. She jerked her head towards the area outside -- it would be better if they stayed on guard and made sure nobody was able to sneak up on them. They wouldn't be actually moving the treasure right now anyway, so they didn't need the extra muscle strength now. For some reason Ceri doubted there would be much to any real danger down there.

Would be too strange.

They had been closed off for centuries, millennia. There wasn't anything that could survive that long, outside of a few rare species that could hibernate while feeding off the Force.... like the Tuk'ata, but this wasn't a world of the Darkside.

The chances were really minuscule.

A moment after her last command a green blur passed quickly through the air. It landed next to Verin, Scarra already moved farther into the darkness -- his eyes not needing any artificial light to see clearly. There was a hiss as his teeth grinned passed each other, but nothing other than that to disclose what he was seeing.

Cerita rolled her eyes.

"Theatrics isn't your style, Scar." Before moving into the shadows, light suddenly lighting up from her hand. First there was nothing, just a long doorway, until finally Sarova saw Scarra in the distance, crouched and looking at something.

They would follow... and what they saw next cut off anything wise-cracking Cerita could have said.

"Kark." Gleaming, shining, mountains of them around them and farther down the room, she could see more hallways turning into bigger rooms further into the bedrock the vaults were embedded in.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

How did you quantify a fortune? Once could argue it was a matter of perspective.

On the streets, back in the winding alleyways of Kol Atorn, a fortune would’ve been finding enough scrap to buy a meal that wasn’t at least a day old. Runi could count on one hand the number of times she’d been that fortune – and still have fingers to spare.

On the salvaging circuit, a fortune was anything that would allow you to keep flying for just another month or more without debt collectors dogging your steps at every turn. Haran, if you were really lucky, you might just be able to afford those new compressor parts and keep your ship from exploding the next time you tried to make a quick planetfall.

Right then, in the here and now, as Runi Verin tried to make heads or tails of the sea of wealth that shone beneath the chemlights, stretching out in every direction for as far as the eye could see (and likely further)…

The word fortune didn’t even begin to scratch the surface.

Kark, she was quasi-fluent in half a dozens languages and could curse up a storm in a dozen or so more, yet nothing seemed to come even close to describing what lay before them.

Courageously, her mouth tried all the same, the first words tumbling from her lips a nonsensical litany of broken gibberish before it settled on the word that had, until now it seemed, never failed her.

“Fierfek.”

The Nova Vaults of Kakitai bel Toyouin.

They were real.

More than real.

“Fierfek, fierfek, fierfek.”

She spun on her heel to face Cerita, closing the distance in two quick strides, her cybernetic hand reaching out to grab the other woman’s collar. For once there was no menace or angry intent in such an act, the gesture coming more from a need for tangible reassurance than anything. “Tell me you’re seeing this. Tell me you are karking seeing this. Tell me. Please.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Cash never meant much to Cerita.

From the moment of her birth there was always someone looking after her. Either Rave, or Valik or Dissero, throughout that time from the Fringe to Akure... there was always something to fall back to. This was to say that she didn't have same experiences with cold, hard valuta as Runi did. It wasn't the abundance of nova crystals that made her eyes shine with glee. It was about being right. Not in the petty way of proving Runi wrong.

No, it was about having an idea, a concept and after many days and weeks of preparation... finding out your hypothesis was actually right.

That was where her pleasure came from right now. She didn't even particularly mind that Verin stepped in uncomfortably close and started tugging at her collar, nothing could spoil this moment for her.

"Seeing this?" The smile grew wider and she showed her hand, filled with three gargantuan nova crystals. "I am feeling it. Here, see for yourself."

And the crystals were deposited in Runi's hand.

Probably worth enough to completely restore her crappy ship and maybe even buy a second one.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

Even with the crystals in her hand, it hardly felt real. None of it did. The sheer volume of wealth in her hand alone was more than she could have ever dreamed of holding. She simply couldn’t connect the magnitude of what lay in the rest of the vault.

“Kark me, there’s got to be…” She shook her head and stepped back, releasing her hold on Cerita’s collar. The expression on her face still cycling through various stages of shock, disbelief and what could only be described as ‘Error: 404 Emotion Not Found’. “Kark, I can’t even count that high. I don’t think even Hutts can count that high.”

Until now, Runi didn’t even know these sort of numbers existed outside of the theoretical.

She slipped the gemstones into the pocket of her rumpled, dirt stained jumpsuit. “Even if I strip down the Boracyk to the barest essentials – and I mean literally talking running on an engine and prayer here – I don’t think we’re going to fit this in. Maybe a tenth if we’re lucky.”

Even factoring in the slightly more modest percentage she had negotiated with Cerita, with her cut from even a tenth she was looking at… Well, she wouldn’t have to worry about the Besadii or any other Kajidics darkening her hanger ever again. That thought alone was enough to almost break her mind then and there.
“We’re going to need a bigger ship. A lot bigger.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

"Oh, don't worry, dear. We can do bigger." An old voice rang through the room. It was stained, glib with the wealth of ages and a patience that spoke of decades, if not more of getting exactly what he wanted... when he wanted.

Sarova turned around, her reply cut short by an elderly gentleman with a walking stick and deceptively kind-hearted smile tugging at his expression. Her mind started racing by the possibilities - all of it came back to the fact that this man was a threat, why? For one, because if he was here, that meant he somehow got through four Qo'saarai Tuk'ata and one really pissed of Scarra. Oh, you could take down a Tuk'ata just fine. But it wasn't easy and that made her very cautious about her next few moves.

"Miss Verin, you are quite difficult to find." The man continued, apparently blissfully unaware or uninterested by the calculation running through Ceri's mind. Behind him three Wookiees appeared.

This solved the issue of the Tuk'ata, somewhat. He had enough muscle to at least pose difficulty here and something -- the fact that he strode into here without much in the way of concern -- told her that there were more of them crawling around outside.

"Hands where I can see them, please." Two of the Wookiees raised their bowcasters immediately in response to the request.

"I am here to collect a debt."

Mister Gallows smiled at [member="Runi Verin"].

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

And just like that, the excitement of the find quickly soured as a voice cut through the vault’s gloom. She was already moving by the time the last syllable echoed off the ancient duracrete, stepping protectively in front of Cerita as she reached for the heavy beskad that was sheathed at the small of her back.

The People to the south, she quickly summarised with a painful jolt of hindsight.

Blast it, she should have known they were trouble. No one was that hard to lock down, not unless they were purposefully trying to avoid detection. Something they were obviously adept at doing considering they made it this far without triggering her force awareness. Either that or she was getting sloppy. Both possibilities far from comforting.

“’lek? Not difficult enough, clearly.” She tilted her head towards Sarova, never once taking her eyes off the elderly man. If he had gotten past Scarra and his boys – Tuk’ata she had witnessed time and time again cutting through people like a heat-knife through nerf butter – he wasn’t someone you could take lightly. “She had no problem finding me after all.”

The shadows behind the man shifted, revealing a trio of Wookiees. Armed to the proverbial gills and looking no worse for wear, there had to be quite a few more lurking in the darkness, licking their wounds. She held little love for Scarra, but she doubted he would’ve gone down easily. Her hand tightened on the hilt of her beskad, the leather lining of her glove creaking at the force applied. “And I don’t seem to recall owing you anything, pateesa.”

Dasooga Besadii Tai was still in position of her marker last she heard. And unless the Besadii were hiring whole new calibre of thugs, one complete with grandfatherly smiles and bespoke suits, she had a feeling this wasn’t Dasooga’s work. At least not overtly. That greasy Hutt had his maggoty fingers in enough pies that it was hard to completely rule him out.

“But, hey, take a few steps forward and we’ll see if we can change that.”