Weighing the Odds

[Dax Perl]

Dax entered the unsavory setting quietly. He hated these kinds of places...well...maybe not all of them, just these particular few. The gambling holes of Coruscant varied from lavish and well to do, to cess pits filled with just as disagreeable clients. Of course, none of them were honest. All of them either stacked the deck, or were affiliated with less than savory gangs.

Dax was drawn to this particular casino, ​The Mynock's Cave, due to one of these particular affiliations...or rather the lack thereof. It was obvious the money was going somewhere other than back into the casino...you just had to look around to determine that. The place was a trash heap. Dax doubted that an actual Manock would use the place as a cave. Dax would've guessed that the surplus cash would be taken by the owner of this fine establishment, who would be living lavishly, but the man seemed to be as poor as the place he ran. Dax didn't get it.

The young Jedi walked up to the bar and sat down, "Just water please," he said to the bartender.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Dax Fyre"]

"What's that for?" Asked the manager of the Oswalt Hotel Resort and Casino; A short man with balding grey hair, a second chin, a tire around his middle and nervous pale green eyes that fixed themselves on the blaster rifle slung across the back of the smuggler, bounty hunter, mercenary and all around ladies man Joran Del-finn.

"'fraid so, mate." Joran answered. "Independent contractor you see, I don't got some corporation insuring my shipments. All I got is this." Joran told the man indicating to the rifle across his back. Independent contractor of course meant, smuggler but that wasn't something Joran went around boasting about especially to strangers.

Joran and the manager watched as a crew of hotel staff unloaded Joran's ship of all but two crates. He'd come here to QZ884X, a rather large asteroid that was home to the Hotel and Casino to make two deliveries, one was a legitimate delivery of building supplies, the main casino was undergoing rennovations so for now those who wanted to gamble were forced to spend their time in the old casino The Mynock's cave, twice as old and half the size of the newer luxury casino.

The second delivery however was less than legitimate and far from legal. two crates both were half the size of one of the more legal packages and were unmarked. Joran assumed he knew what was in them, their size, weight and lack of marking suggested spice or glitterstim but he knew better than to actually check.

 

[Dax Perl]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

From the bar of the old, grimy casino, Dax had a pretty good view of everything. Whoever had designed the place, sure knew what they were doing. In its hayday, the place must've looked ostentatiously gorgeous. Perhaps sickeningly so. The bar served as the perfect place to look over the gambling shoulders of the beings throwing their money into the bottemless pit. What should have made a lively and glorious seen had decayed over the many years into a trash heap of a gambling hole, with somewhat nicely dressed aliens mixed in with the scum of off the streets. While not glorious it certainly made Dax snicker.

From his perch he could see what could only be described as a giant of a man walk in, rifle slung over his shoulder and a demeanor that screamed "I'll snap you like a twig if you piss me off." Dax let out a groan. He was more than willing to bet that that man was going to be his primary lead...he just hoped he'd have all limbs accounted for after the fact.

Dax knocked back the last of water, then immediately regretted it. He spat out the mildly odd tasting liquid back into the cup, stood and began to approach the man with reluctance.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Dax Fyre"]

With all legal materials off his ship Joran stood and waited for close to half an hour before six men aproached his ship. because of their uniforms Joran almost mistaked them for members of the last crew coming back for some reason, that was until he saw that these men were packing weapons.

"Evening lads." Joran called out to them when they were still about twenty yards away from him and his ship.

"Same to you friend." One of the six answered back. He was human and tall, not quite as tall as Joran and not nearly as heavy but the talker was clearly one who did his fair share intimidation. He wore his sand brown hair in a ponytail and the way he walked suggested to Joran that the man had a military back ground.

"You're the one Zuba sent?" ponytail asked Joran.

"I am." Joran replied.

"Mind if we get our package from your ship?" Ponytail asks as four of the others and a turbo lift are already headed up his loading ramp.

"It's all here!" comes a shout from inside the ship.

"Perfect. I'll take my credits now." Joran tells ponytail.

"One small problem, friend." Ponytail says. "You're under arrest."

Fucking hell. Joran was going to kill Zuba. Kill him fucking dead, in the worst ways possible, over and over again.

Joran didn't say a word. Instead he pulled a pistol from the small of his back and shot ponytail right in the face before turning his blaster on the other man that stayed behind. He was in it now. Transporting illegal goods and now murder, of law enforcement no less. Great fucking way to spend his night.

 

[Dax Perl]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Dax had watched the man return to his ship, the crews unloading his ship. He'd stayed quite a ways back, using the Force to make his presence less noticable. Physically of course it did nothing, but it made eyes less likely to move towards him, and more likely to pass over him. A useful skill. Although to be homest Dax could've probably been a kilometer away and still known where the man was. His intomidating presence was surprising strong for a non-Force user.

The offloading of cargo had been as of yet, uneventful. Then he noticed the 6 armed beings approach. "Frak..." Dax muttered to himself. He took off towards the men at full speed, unclipping the battle-worm saber from his belt.

"Perfect, I'll take my credits now" Dax could here just at the edge of his hearing, as he jostled his way through a small crowd of maitnence droids.

The next thing Dax saw was the officer's brains get fried by a blaster bolt.

"Frak it!" The young man lept into the air, using the Force to enhance the height of his jump. The air roared past his ears as he came back down. Landing, tucking and rolling, he became aware of his saber coming to life in his hand as he sprung back to his feet, preparing to deflect any incoming blaster bolts.

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

Perfect. Fucking perfect. If it wasn't bad enough that Joran got roped into a job that wasn't paying near enough and had gone a fucked it up beyond salvation, now there was a Jedi.

Joran raised the pistol and took a few pot shots in the Jedi's direction. There was no chance that any of them would actually hit the Jedi, he knew but it was better to give the man something to think about than to give him free quater to shove that blade through Joran's belly.

"Listen, friend, this has nothing to do with you." Joran called out to the Jedi hoping the man would just drop the issue, though he was certain that he wouldnt.
Joran was about to tell the Jedi they could work something out but all that came out of his mouth was a cry of pain follwed by as many swear words as he could think of. the smell of burnt flesh filled his nose as he looked down and saw the smoke rising from his left shoulder.

He forgot about the men on his ship and now one of them had shot him. Joran fired couple clumsy shots toward the open cargo bay of his ship as he ducked behind some loading equipment for cover cursing the entire time. Cursing the officers, cursing the Jedi, cursing himself, and saving all the best curses for Zuba.

The men in the ship fired another volley of shots, to Joran it sounded like about eight in total but to his surprise none even came close to him, it took him a second to realize they had now turned their attention to the Jedi and were shooting at [member="Dax Fyre"].

 

[Dax Perl]

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

Dax deflected the first volley pf shots coming from the large man with ease. After that however, came the fun parts. He heard the big man cry out in paint and watched a few streaks of light stream past him as the crew of the ship shot at the both of them. Dax nimbly deflected the various bolts from the crew. To his surprise the remaining policemen fired on him too. He'd forgotten one important thing about this godforsaken rock. Jedi weren't welcome here. Caught in the center of the cross fire, Dax wouldn't stand a chance. He quickly switched hands with his saber, and drew his pistol from its holster returning fire blindly as he ran towards some loose cargo crates. Diving over them he landed behind them, the hiss of blaster bolts striking the metal resounding around him. "Kark this..." Dax said to himself...

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

Cops shooting at Jedi was not a common site, even out here, which made Joran realize that these couldn't of been law officers; Not clean ones anyway.

Joran tried to peek over his cover to see what was happening and spotted the Jedi do his jedi thing, defelecting blaster bolts like they were bocoa ball volleys, before he let out a gasp of pain and slid back under his cover. The gasp turned unwillingly to a laugh before turning in to a pained groan. Joran looked at his shoulder, that just finished smoking and laughed again. He could not help himself looking at the wound and thinking of [member="Nei Laa"] and how much she would laugh at his trouble. he should of wore his armor.

"si'hklesi foh" he said outloud as another volley was directed at him. It seemed the four men on the ship had smartened up. Two were shooting at Joran while the others shot at [member="Dax Fyre"].

Lets see what you got Jedi, Joran though desperately.

 

[Dax Perl]

Dax Was suddenly facing far more bolts of light than he had been just moments before. A couple of the ship's crew had turned to fire at Dax. As if he didn't have enough problems. I have to end this now Dax thought to himself. Sure he could easily last against the 3 cops on his own. Take them out even. But 6 men, plus an unknown wounded man who may or may not do something very stupid? He couldn't take that chance.

Changing his vectors, he aimed some oncoming bolts at thise closest to him. The yellow blade came across the fromt of his body, intercepting the first bolt. One down. The blade spins and catches another bolt, striking another man. Ducking low, avoiding several more oncoming streaks of red light, Dax kicked upwards, the hard heel of his boot colliding with the poor Duros' jaw with an audible crack. The man flew backwards into several crates and lay still.

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]

 

[Joran Del-Finn]

[member="Dax Fyre"]

He need to get those fucking pricks off his ship and in a hurry. From their vantage point now it was only a matter of time before they picked off Joran and the Jedi too. Hoping beyond reason Joran pulled a small data pad from the inside pocket of his jacket and punched in a seires of numbers, if all went right the door to the bay would shut on them either trapping them in the ship with narry a way off or closing behind them and giving them no hope for cover.

With the numbers punched in Joran waited half a breath for the door to shut which it did with a creak and a groan that gave three of the men time to move further down the ramp while leaving one now trapped inside the ship. Joran with a yell of pain stood up from his cover and fired a few shots dropping one of the three men on the ramp cold dead with a bolt to the face.

so two on the ramp, one in the ship, and a Jedi down here with me. My odds are improving, he thought as he slid back behind his cover.

 

[Dax Perl]

Four left Dax thought. Dax pulled the nearest guard close to him, the himan face kissing Dax's fist, a couple teeth certainly being knocked loose. Bounding backwards he deflected the incoming blaster bolts from the other officer. Finding cover behind crates, Dax relaxed his shoulders. Swings his glowrod was far more tiring than it looked. Drawing his blaster he returned fire, blindily firing around the corner of the crate which offered protection.

[member="Joran Del-Finn"]