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Aduba 3, Bheriz Sector
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Corask Slen'da
Solomon


Joined: 30 May 2010
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 Post Posted: Sat, May 07th 2011 03:23am    Post subject: Aduba 3, Bheriz Sector
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Cragus 12
Solomon


Joined: 30 May 2010
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 Post Posted: Sat, May 07th 2011 03:24am    Post subject:
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Inbound to Aduba III, Bheriz Sector

Once things had been set in motion, Cragus was simply helpless. He wasn't used to this feeling.

It was not his contact that he was worried about. The man he was going to meet was once a legendary bounty hunter, but now was a old cripple living off of his gains in opulent obscurity on Aduba. Cragus wouldn't have gone to him, but he knew the old man wouldn't turn him over to the Republic or Aduban authorities. They had too much history together, and the old man had an even larger reward on his head from the Republic than Cragus 12.

Part of it ws the separation from his own ship. He had given a snort when he saw Slen'da's ship; a Vaanguard Pathfiner. Cragus asked if Slen'da had gotten it from a museum, Slen'da missed the sarcasm said "yes, how did you know?" Still, the Research Institute had modernized the ship so it wasn't necessarily a rust bucket, just an old ship. But it wasn't his.

The second and biggest thing on his mind was that he was not only entering patrolled Republic space, but relying on the Jedi -a Jedi- to keep him from captivity. If the Jedi decided to change his mind and turn him in for the kidnapping and murders of various New Republic officials and soldiers, there wasn't too much he could do. But, if Slen'da didn't turn him in, if those Republic patrols didn't believe the word of a Jedi and searched the ship, then he was still in a tight spot with few options.

Then there was Aduba's shadowport. It was a place he'd frequented many times, and it a true hive of Hutt scum and villany. But a lot of people knew him there, and if one of his many contacts decided to sell him out to Looba the Hutt, he would only have the backing of this tame-looking Bothan Jedi.

At least Slen'da had been quiet on the trip so far. Perhaps he was engrossed in his own thoughts. As if he had heard that last thought, the Bothan Jedi broke into his thoughts.

"Exiting hyperspace in three.. two.. one."

The mottled blue of hyperspace morphed into the brilliant diamonds of stars as the Pathfinder exited hyperspace amidst the busy freighter traffic of the Aduba System. As it so often happened this far in the Outer Rim, the blackness of space seemed overwhelming, and the friendly stars few and far between. There was an impressive amount of traffic, however; freighter convoys and passenger transports were mixed with mercenary escorts and Republic Y-Wing Mk IIs. In the distance a pair of Nebulon-B Frigates kept an eye on the system traffic, and over the Aduban plants hung the faint slivers of orbital defence stations.

Republic system patrols and Aduban outposts managed this part of the Trellis Trade Route, monitoring the steady flow of incoming and outgoing traders, merchants, and liners travelling the "Hutt's Highway."

Slen'da turned from piloting to Cragus 12. "This sector is new to me, Master Cragus. What can we expect from the Adubans?"

Cragus turned from his own thoughts, gave the question serious thought.

"In this sector, the Republic maintains only anti-slavery and anti-piracy patrols, as well as taxing and policing the trade route. They don't have or need the firepower to take on an Imperial battle group, but they are heavy on investigators and slicers. They also have a reputation for cracking fake transponders and IDs.. They've also destroyed enough pirate bands and slaver rings in this are over the years, and as a result the biggest groups avoid this sector. But if you get through the Republic system control, the Aduban planetary network is far less.. discriminating."

At this they were raised on the ship's comm. "This is the Republic Frigate Emblazon to Obroan scout ship OIR-3." A harsh voice declared. "Halt engines and lower shields for inspection, and transmit identification and registration."

As the controller spoke, a pair of Republic Y-Wing MkIIs swung on to an intercept vector. Cragus's helplessness turned to frustration. If this didn't work, he was in a deep hole.

Unperturbed, Slen'da obeyed the orders, and responded. "Greetings, Emblazon, we are transmitting our identification package and ship registration. This is Corask Slen'da of the Jedi Order. My colleague and I are enroute to Aduba 3 on business for the Jedi Order and the Obroan Institute of Research."

Through the viewports, the Y-Wings grew closer, closer, and then flew overhead, their astromechs scanning the Pathfinder. Cragus's tension ratcheted up. An eternity passed before the controller returned, considerably more pleasant.

"Identity and ship registration confirmed and cleared, Jedi Slen'da. The scan checks out as well. Welcome to the Aduba System. May The Force Be With You. Emblazon out."

Unconciously, Cragus released a breath he had been holding. Hearing this, Slen'da smiled quietly to himself and cut channels to the Frigate.

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Corask Slen'da
Solomon


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 Post Posted: Mon, May 09th 2011 12:37am    Post subject:
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Starport, ADUBA III

Before the ramp set down, Cragus turned to Slen'da. "First, from here on in, you follow me. Secondly, whereever I go or whoever we meet, you forget. This isn't a place that welcomes official notice, or unwanted attention. They will think you plan on turning them over to the authorities and try to kill us. So, don't ask unneeded questions and don't cause problems, scientist-Jedi."

Slen'da nodded mutely, his purple-flecked golden eyes the only thing that betrayed his ire at the instruction.

"Then I will ask you. Who are we going to meet?"

"An old.. competitor."

* * *

Mansion-Palace of Esphenion, Aduba 3

As the speeder settled into the landing field, Cragus admired the view. The mansion-palace was located back from the main intercontinental trade routes on Aduba 3, set upon by a mountain range surrounded by forest. It was made with light green timber and faded yellow masonry, and was built in a way that suggested the winters in this part of Aduba were cold.


A man, came out of the main entrance to greet them. His stride was stiff, as though he had suffered an injury long ago, but his obvious athleticism gave him the air of an old lion. A scar covered half of his face and disappeared up into his hairline, and down into his tunic. His good eye was still strong, intelligent, and hard. That one eye lit up with recognition when it rested on Cragus, but quickly hardened again as the old man hid his feelings.

"Cragus 12. It has been a long time. There is no mistaking you. You look the same."

"You look different." Cragus responded without warmth. The man laughed, and replied.

"I show the consequences of a lifetime of violence." Cragus cocked his head at that.

"Are you using your head now that your body has failed you?" The man refused to be baited, his eye shining with malevolent jest.

"Intelligence and insight are just the consequences of a long life, Cragus 12. Perhaps there is more to the change once a man chooses to become a man-droid; he gains physical powers, but what does he lose mentally? What have you lost, Cragus? Your.. humanity?"

Cragus's voice took an controlled, flat tone. "I still have enough of both for bounty hunting and mercy-killing."

The man paused, a wariness coming to the eye. "Are you here for me? Have you finally decided to try your hand against me?"

Tension mounted, Cragus standing stock still. "And if we are?"

Slen'da sharply turned his head to Cragus. What was he doing? What were they both doing? The old man's eye lost it's intelligence and revealed the animal, staring hard and wild at Cragus. The old man responded simply and flatly.

"Then you would die."

The tension rose even further, then Cragus shook his head. "Then you haven't changed that much either, old man. We need someone only you can contact. Your children."

The old man subsided, and Slen'da untensed from his combat-ready stillness.

"Then you were right to come to me in person. Inside."

* * * * *

The old man led Cragus into the atrium of the mansion-palace. Inside were several of the old man's servant-guards. Also there in the atrium, set in the centre at the position of honour and behind a case of crystal, was a suit of armour. Not some sort of Metal Age affair; it was the armoured suit reminicient of the Sun Guard of Thyrsus. There were some differences; it was red like Palpatine's Royal Guards, not yellow or black like the Sun Guards. It also showed a few modifications and equipment modules available only recently. Most tellingly, metallic kneeguards were fashioned after human skulls. Slen'da's eyes widened slightly, his fur flattening in response.

"Master, there is only one person who wore exactly that armour. Are you he? Or did you kill him?" The old man stiffened, and said to Cragus.

"You didn't tell him." It was not a question, but a statement. At Cragus's negative signal, the old man replied to Slen'da simply, "I am he."

"Then you are a legend, sir. Your "last stand" at Kortado was also legendary."

The old man sneered at the overt jibe flattery, and at the subtle lure for information.

"And I thought Bothans were more subtle than that. Come into my office; I will arrange things."

* * * * * *

After listening to the summary of the events and the bounties the Bothan and cyborg were comissioned for, the old man nodded from behind his desk.

"Calrissian is no fool; there are similarities in this case. And I don't know why you're along with Cragus, Jedi, but you're far from Coruscant."

"Those murdered in the Rafa System were friends and colleagues; I will avenge their deaths." The Bothan responded quietly. The old man looked through him a moment, seeing something.

"A blood vengeance is a good reason." The old man sat back, satisfied, but his eye remained on Slen'da. "Then consider that they waited for you to leave before making the raid; the presence of a Jedi is still big news in the Outer Rim; most groups would avoid that kind of trouble if they could. Here's a tip then, Jedi; they must have been watching you. If you track the trackers, you may find another trail to follow."

Slen'da sat back at this perspective. Before he could respond, the console on the old man's desk beeped for attention. He looked down at it.

"It's done." He said "They will meet you in the 29th hour, just before sunset."

* * * * *

The palace-mansion dwindled from sight as the speeder may it's way back to the Aduba landing-fields. Slen'da and Cragus sat silently, until Slen'da couldn't hold it back anymore.

"What is he doing here? In this backwater?"

"It's only a backwater to you, Jedi. After his injury, he retired to the far side of Hutt Space. I guess he had a fortune stashed from all the high-profile bounties he landed in his prime. Being on a planet along the Hutt's Highway keeps him in the loop, his children are based out of Aduba, and many of his old acquaintances still visit him when they're onplanet. He keeps off the comm nets and the Holonet to prevent tracing, which is why the personal visit was necessary. All of that privacy is necessary; the price on his head is-was- astronomical; much, much higher than mine. So, I knew he wouldn't turn me over to Looba or to the Centrans. And neither will his children. The daughter is a slicer with a reputation, while the son is much like his father; a cruel, vicious and successful bounty hunter. We go meet the daughter tonight with the data, and she'll track down those leads."

"Where are we meeting her?"

"In the Shadowport of Aduba."

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Corask Slen'da
Solomon


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 Post Posted: Wed, May 11th 2011 02:11pm    Post subject:
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Aduba 3

The rented speeder went over forest and plain, savannah and hill ranges. As the speeder approached a large mountain chain, Cragus started it's descent into the range's foothills. There, settled amongst the rocks and open pits, was a shabby and generally decripit collection of buildings, warehouses, and industrial facilities that made up a small town. At the edge of the town were a number of open pits and quarries, most of which contained starships. Individuals could be made out, lounging around the starships, the stalls of the market, coming and going from the buildings. Cragus looked it over, and began to explain for Slen'da.

"There is the Starport, which handles the major -and legit- trade along the Trellis Trade Route, and then there's the Shadowport, which handles the traffic along the Hutt's Highway. The Mining Guild had an operation here, and created the open pits, quarries and cavern network, but when not enough heavy metals were found, they pulled out. Now the mining complex and the abandoned company town around it are Aduba's Shadowport."

Slen'da looked slightly affronted. "I'm surprised a Republic system allows this type of operation on their planet."

Cragus turned his helmet's faceplate toward the Bothan, and Slen'da did not need to see Cragus 12's face for him to know that Cragus was giving him an odd look. Cragus answered after a moment.

"The consensus is that the Adubans officially ignore it, and that is probably due both to rich bribes from the shadowport authorities, and it acts as their planetary black market. Most respectable Adubans also prefer the rough galactic elements isolated from the main communities. So if you can make it past the Republic system patrols to the planet's atmosphere, you're generally free and clear. It's hard to track traffic around here anyway; the metal content in the mountains and foothills scramble most sensor readings."

"Speaking of which, there's a couple of cloaks in the back seat. Put one of them on, and make sure your lightsaber is concealed; this place will light up like a holiday festival if they see a Jedi Knight poking around.

They were waved down in the Shadowport's landing field, and settled down by a number of airspeeders and floaters. They landing urchins, and paid the landing fee to a rough looking Shistavanens, flanked by a pair of Weequay.

"A guard? That denotes some type of authority.. who runs this place?"

"This shadowport is run by a partnership between one of the home-grown Aduban gangs and whichever Hutt syndicate controls this system; I think this is Fa'athra's territory. The gang provides the muscle for smooth local operations; the Hutts bring in the black market and everything else."

They made their way from behind a luxury airspeeder, past a trio of shabby swoops, and into the streets of the shadowport. The main strip had the air of a frontier town of a pionieering world. In the center of the town's square, the market vendors were wrapping up their wares for the night. Everything from fruit to poisons to trinkets to weapons were being thrown on the backs of repulsorsleds or ground vehicles. Music blared from the open portals of dancespots and casinos, while the quieter saloons and cantinas were available for the more serious dealmaker. Set back from the main strip were darkened warehouses and multistory buildings, several topped with satellite receivers. Loungers and pedestrians all seemed to mind their own business, giving each passersby giving each other a repectable berth.

Cragus led Slen'da off the main strip and into one of the alleys, where it seemed the detritus of the galaxy was huddled up or lying against walls and amongst refuse. Near the end of the alley, where it ended at a doorway and a cross-alley, a pair of Rodians straightened up from their seats. Each wore a blaster pistol tucked into their waist band, and each kept one hand near the weapon. One called up a window two stories up; and a shape appeared, holding a blaster rifle. Cragus, oblivious to that, strode up to them. The Rodian churbled at Cragus; Slen'da stayed a step back, and remained cloaked.

"I'm looking for Beveri; we're expected."

The Rodian who spoke to them signalled them to stay where they were, while the second ducked inside the door. After a few moments, the Rodian appeared, and beckoned for them. They went inside the building, and followed the Rodian up several flights of stairs. Finally, somewhere near the top of the building, they were shown through a door.

The room beyond was simply crammed with electronics gear; communications, sensors, ciphering, decryption, analyzation modules and booths were all over, and so were loose parts from a different styles of systems. Near the back but in the midst of a control center, a brown-haired, woman turned to look at them. Her entire eye socket and cheekbone was covered with a cyborg implant. The implant's laser-blue pupil looked back at them, slightly off-colour from her real blue eye. She smiled without warmth.

"Cragus 12. My father said you were coming. Who's the Bothan?"

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Corask Slen'da
Solomon


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 Post Posted: Fri, May 13th 2011 12:19am    Post subject:
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The Shadowport of ADUBA

"I'll start with the harder one first," Beveri to herself, her face around the implant looking a little drawn. The laser-blue eye stared directly at them however. Slen'da and Cragus had spent the last several hours kicking back in the shadowport; for Slen'da, it was an opportunity to study a new world, a new culture. For Cragus, it was to scan the crowd and the community, checking for the notorious, the infamous, or simple pin money. He was also looking for potential threats to the duo, but with word spreading that the Bothan was a Jedi, there were no comers.

Beveri had started when Cragus had introduced her to the Jedi. "A Jedi-" she sputtered "-what are you doing bringing a Jedi here!? Cragus had to explain they were tracking the same group of targets. It was hard; he didn't necessarily dislike the Bothan, nor anyone for that matter, he just didn't want to work with them. They got in the way of an efficient operation, of a smooth hunt. After trying to explain the Bothan away when he himself didn't want the Jedi around was a pain. And on the bright side, having the Jedi onhand did scare the riff-raff off from trying to cash in the bounty on Cragus's own head.

They had returned to the slicer's workshop when she commed them with some news. When they left, she was plugged into the system, imeshed with finding the data streams and cracking the cyphers. "You're lucky," she told them, "a lot of the Outer Rim comm traffic for the Slice gets routed through the Aduba Comm Array, which is why I'm still in this backwater; most of the info I'm looking for comes to me." They had then left to await her call, and they were now sitting, waiting for her to get on with the results.

"I set my sieving droids through the archived Comm Arraay transmission data, looking for any mention of the Amulet of Kalara, Lando Calrissian, and Kelada." She said with evident satisfaction. "Look at what I turned up." She displayed a holorecording, the transmission dated to just before the Kelada break-in.

The recording was had static breaks in the transmission and decryption, but was still coherent. A Drall was providing information to an unidentified, cloaked figure. She sped up the transmission to the relevant part, and then slowed it down, where the Drall was talking.

"..at last notice, Baron-Administrator Lando Calrissian of the Tenandro Arms Syndicate purchased the Amulet through an auction house. He keeps the Amulet among his collection of rare jewellry on Kelada. I'm to understand that he allows small reservations to look over the collection upon request. Perhaps you can view it before making an offer on the item."

The cloaked and hooded figured seemed to nod.

"Perhaps.. I shall. Thank you, Gothran. The payment has been made to your account."

The Drall bowed, "Thank you, Lord. Any time I can further-" Beveri cut the recording off.

"At the end of the recording, a sum of money was transmitted to the Drall's account. Couldn't trace the funds past Phidar however. I did a background search on that Drall. They're rare outside the Corellian system, so it was easy to locate this one; he's an infochant based out of the Hijado System. It makes sense; Dralls have a reputation for researching and recording information and this would have probably been a routine request for him. But for your purposes, it's the other end of the transmission that you want. It's from a starship."

Cragus sensed a lead. "Where is it?"

"Well, when it broadcasted, it was rerouted from somewhere nearer the Mid-Rim; probably the Nexus Ortai System. But it was weeks ago and the ship has probably moved on."

"Can you keep track of that ship?"

Beveri was certain. "As long as he's transmitting from or to this part of the Outer Rim, I can track him."

"Excellent. We'll pay you for any information recieved."

Beveri smirked. "Of course you will, or else you wouldn't recieve it."

"Good. How about our other case. Have you been able to track down Aach Een?"

"Oh, him? Yes, that was quite easy to find him.. but it won't be for you."

"I found travel arrangements for him and his patron to attend the Guild Auction."

Cragus swore, and Slen'da looked perplexed.

"Guild? Which Guild?"

Beveri gave him a sardonic look.

"The only one that matters here in the Outer Rim, the Armorer's Guild."

Cragus supplied.

"The Guild Auction is one of the biggest black market events in the Galaxy, filled with the richest, most ruthless, and toughest galactic elite, from corporate heads, the galaxy's top bounty hunters, warrior races, and crime syndicates. It's also frequented by the galaxy's ultra-rich and famous. And the Auction is by invitation only. We'll have to find a way in."

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