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The Spice Mines of Kessel


Tarrian Skywalker

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The 720 freighter named the Serendipity pulled out of hyperspace near Kessel. It had fully completed the long journey of the Kessel run, which for the crew, had started at Nar Shaddaa, and won't fully end for about another week. Zalis kept his eyes scanning the area as he thought upon the assignment they were given. With the Republic and the Empire engaged in some epic battle in deep space, no force was really around to stop the crew from smuggling out illegal spice from the planets surface. It was almost a steal.

 

The Nautolan smiled as he thought about his prior times on Kessel's surfaces. His contact here that he would expose for their first contract, and someone that Zalis thought of as a friend. A Nikto whom had help Zalis a few years back get his hands upon some bottles of Idlewil liquor, which was very rare and expensive. The smuggle actually helped Zalis buy the Serendipity. He hadn't seen Nurax in some time, but he knew that his old friend was always up to see a friend and hear them out, no matter the case. Opening the communit for the ship, he allowed his crew to know the drill.

 

"All right team, we've arrived at Kessel and have been given permission to land near the Spice Mines. We'll need to meet up with a contact before we can receive the goods. Stay alert, you'll find more than the Nar Shaddaa scum on the surface."

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Zalis finished up what shutdown he could after making a quick landing near the Spice Mines. He made his way out of the cockpit only to see both Eddo and Jervous standing side by side with some random droid near Eddo. He stood by the ladder well for the cockpit just staring at the two. It seemed weird to him that Eddo had already collect a droid. He is a strange one. Walking past them towards the landing ramp, which was only really a few steps away, and lowered it. Once it lowered he looked directly at Eddo.

 

"Alright, when we meet up with Nurax, I want you to hang back and watch out for shady characters... besides for us."

 

He then proceeded to walk out of his ship. He knew that Jervous would handle himself in the right manner, as something told him that the Ubese had done similar work before, unlike Eddo, whom had spent most of his life in fighting circles. He got out and took a moment to scan and remember the old place. It looked and smelled the way he remembered it, which was just rocky, dusty, and cold. He waited for all of his crew to disembark before he started to walk. He wasn't sure, but for some reason, he felt a need to lock up the Serendipity before they left. Maybe it was because he heard some random noises in the docking port, maybe it was a suppressed memory from the last time he was here that had him take to precaution.

 

Once it made sure that the Serendipity was fully locked up so that no one could enter it, he walked a bit towards the main facility of the Spice Mines. He then turned around once he got to the entrance of the docking port to address his crew.

 

"Keep your ears and eyes open and about you. Just because we're on Kessel doesn't mean that there aren't thieves whom would love to either rob us, kill us, or steal my ship. I want to protect everything that I can. And seeing as we are working for Dordjooba, he would want us to protect his stuff as well. He all could end up dead if we fail to protect what is his."

 

He turned his body around to see slight movement within the facility. Turning back towards Jervous and Eddo to make sure they knew exactly what was going to go down.

 

"Once we're inside, we'll need to find Nurax, whom will most likely know of all things the Hutt's may be interested in. He'll be able to tell us where Dordjooba's spice is."

 

Zalis then checked his blaster, turning off the stun setting. If he needed to shot something or someone, he would want to make sure they would end up dead. He raised his hand to direct the crew to start walking towards the facility. As they did, he made one last look around the docking port where the Serendipity was resting. Something told him to be worried. I may have to sweep the ship once we get back... He had to push the thought aside. Worrying about a return was pointless when you didn't have the cargo yet. Once he got his hands on the cargo, he would then worry about getting it back to Dordjooba.

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Zalis turned around with sudden commotion from Eddo and then the random shot by Jervous near his ship. The Nautolan never once made a move for either of his weapons, but instead frowned directly at both Eddo and Jervous.

 

"Guys, it's just a lackey. No need to get all hyped up about it."

 

Zalis himself could now smell the familiar scent of Kaldena. Upon it, her image came into his mind. He couldn't help but admire her body, yet he knew that she wouldn't make a trip to Kessel herself, as she was Dordjobba's main vice... Or so he presumed of her. No one would make such a deal with smugglers without being a top vice in a Hutt's squire. No, her scent was here for a reason, and maybe the lackey was tied into it somehow. He could find out once they found the cargo that they needed.

 

Zalis then continued to walk on, making his way into the main facility. Luck would have it that Nurax happened to be walking by as he entered and saw him.

 

"Nurax you old bum, three years pass without a comm sent my way?"

 

"Zalis, I always knew I would see your ugly face again! You know better then to expect something from me unless money is involved."

 

Zalis took time to embrace his old friend. Once they broke their embrace, he lifted his hand to indicate his two new crew members.

 

"Nurax, this is Eddo and Jervous, my two new crew members. We're here on assignment from the Hutts."

 

"Zalis, you know better then to get involved with the Hutts. They would just as soon rat you out to save their own slimy backs."

 

"Tough times call for unexpected moves. I needed the money, they were paying well enough for me and a crew."

 

Zalis raised his eyebrow, hinting to Nurax that they were here to get his help in finding their cargo. It was an old signal to say such a thing without saying it. The two had come up with it during Nurax's smuggling days back when he owned the Star's End. The Star's End was an old 3-Z light freighter that Nurax had own so many years back. It was destroyed during one of their smuggling missions, which ended to him retiring to Kessel. Part of Zalis believed that is Nurax had managed to salvage the ship, he would still be at it.

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  • 1 month later...

Zalis spent the next few day working on getting the needed shipment ready for delivery on Nar Shaddaa. During this time, she managed to not see Eddo, which made her wonder what happened to the big cat. Jervous on the other hand was seen randomly throughout to process, but never really committed to working the deal. She found it weird that such characters would willing join up with a smuggler, let alone drop all interest upon after getting a job. Not like it mattered. If either one did drop out, she would simply use their share to get herself more booze or man. It was a simple pleasure that most smugglers and mercenaries would rather not enjoy with their credits, but Zalis found extreme pleasure in such things, and so that's where her money always went.

 

After two days had passed, Zalis had finished up all of the work and managed to get the deal done and secure. Her old friend Nurax managed to get her the needed spice for the Hutt, and then some. It took some resources to get in unnoticed from the manifest, but Zalis was willing to make a down payment on it, as she figured that the Hutt would pay handsomely for the added bonus. Upon finishing and getting everything into the secured holds on the Serendipity, she spotted Jervous walking back into a crew hold, but Eddo was nowhere to be seen. She shrugged it off and decided that Eddo knew when they were taking off, as she did send out a message. Walking up to the cockpit and warming the engines and then lifted off for Nar Shaddaa and payment for the precious cargo.

 

((Jervous, if you're still RPing with me, post when you can on Nar Shaddaa. If not, I'll assume you got off.))

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  • 9 years later...

Of all of the emotions one would think that Zalis, the Queen of Vice would be feeling as she had her ship, Lucky Strike navigate the Akkadese Maelstrom towards the planet, many would not have guessed nauseated, but she was. The idea of the whole situation brewing on the surface brought up many scenarios playing out in her head, all of which had many of the legitimate companies she owned or had high stock in could come crashing down around what was transpiring or could transpire. At that was her sole purpose in making the run as fast as she could to get here. Not to respond to the Black Sun's call for agents to help defend it if they could, but rather to protect her own agendas, which could do more damage to the Sith Empire and Rebellion, which in turn would hurt her own business. 

 

She stood behind the pilot droid, PD-087, who was navigating as best it could with its high tech gear. She couldn't care less how the droid actually did it, so long as it got her planet side safely. As the ship moved, she got her dress off, which revealed bare minimum clothing, to which she quickly but her weapon belt and straps on, followed by her brown leather jacket and combat boots. She needed to make sure that she was in a position to defend her assets, no matter what. "Ma'am, there are a few reports coming in quickly. It seems to be several small insurgents attempting take overs at multiple locations. I will try to find the least dense populated are-" "No- swing me over near the processing plants. I want to protect them." She didn't give the droid a chance to respond, she began to walk back towards the landing ramp. She knew what she was about to do, and the droid knew its role in all of it.

 

She opened the landing ramp, having sirens from within the ship blare at her in warning, which were quickly drowned out by the loud whoosh of wind that took over. She zipped up her jacket and and stepped down onto the landing ramp towards the edge, holding onto one of the gears that held the ramp. She looked towards where the ship was headed and saw what she needed to see. Lucky Strike was moving quick and low towards one of landing pads, and she saw her moment. She stepped off the ramp and leaned backwards in a quick fall over the landing pad. She used a trick she learned when escaping crime bosses she would assassinate from high buildings on Coruscant. She spun herself backwards so that she would land without a lot of impact upon her own bones and joints. As she landed, she pulled out two blasters and began to pour fire towards those that began to oppose her as she moved hurriedly towards defending the processing plant.

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The landing pad wasn't as crowded as Zalis anticipated. A few, maybe four tried to oppose her on her way into the tunnels. They were quick and easy targets, enough that even her simple blaster fire pinned them back, having them put into bad positions, which lead to what she would say was a confirmed 2 dead, maybe 3 with one clearly trying to find a way out of the main fire arc she poured in their direction. It didn't last, as upon her reaching the south east tunnel's entrance, she let her blasters fall to her side to make a stronger run. 

 

As she ran through the somewhat dark musty tunnel, she could almost begin to smell the very distinct scent of Coaxium and Kesselstone mix within the musty smells, making it one that she assumed would make anyone without a mask get light headed if they stayed within the tunnels for longer than an hour. Hopefully, she would not be within the tunnels for that long. There was also the very clear dim lights that showed shadows from all angles, making surprises on the harder side unless one worked within the shadows and moved quickly to not let such shadows giveaway their position. But almost as soon as she had the thought, she was indeed taken by surprise from an Energy Spider, one whom didn't seem to mind the soft light from one side of the tunnel. Without much of a reaction, she lifted her right hand to fire a few shots towards its eye while taking her left hand and putting away her other blaster in exchange for a vibrodagger. Without breaking her run, she charged the spider head on, sliding underneath it as she came up upon its main frame. As she slide, she tilted her body towards the right and stuck her left hand up to drag the dagger against the spiders main underbelly. 

 

Zalis quickly used her own slide as momentum to help her make a jump up off a far wall of the tunnel that the Energy Spider was building a small web upon. She didn't care if she killed it, as that was not her goal. Protecting the processing plants were. As she rounded another corner, she could hear the squeal of the spider behind her, but could see some movement in the lights ahead near the processing plants. Sith-spit! She was upset at the fact that the spider may have given her position away. Wanting to have some element of surprise, she quickly jumped up mid run towards a small air shaft feet first. The air shaft was small and slender. She would be able to fit, but barely. It wasn't large either, that much she could tell from the outside. It maybe covered enough area to help filter out the air within the main large processing room. 

 

Upon getting herself within the main shaft, it also made noise, but she could still hear the spider squeal along with what sounded like heavy blaster fire coming from somewhere else. And much to her won surprise, the shaft was indeed small. So small in fact that it wasn't even the length of her body. So upon hitting the outer crate cover with her feet, she went all the way through to the other side, landing on her feet. Still in shock that the air shaft wasn't all that large, she stood up from a crouched position with a vibrodagger in one hand and a blaster in the other. There before her was an all too familiar figure. Terra. Zalis smiled, "Hey bitch. You look like hell."  She said it all with a friendly demeanor and a voice that suggested that maybe she regretted not being able to get close with her as she did with Delta. But somehow she knew, from looking over Terra that this meeting is about to be a fight. Terra was a damn good fighter from the early Black Sun reports she had always read on her. This wasn't going to be easy.

 

 

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Zalis had a pause for a single moment as she watched Terra. She watched those that accompanied Terra from the corner of her own eyes, trying to keep them within eyesight of potential harm. As Terra spoke, suddenly an Energy Spider came out and Terra was quick to snap off her own blaster at it. Zalis took the opportunity to jump behind cover herself and prepare herself by putting away her vibrodagger in exchange for her other blaster. All the while having a new line of thoughts. That bitch was going to shoot me. The thought brought a smile to her face. Terra was about to make this engagement fun, at least from her own perspective. 

 

There was suddenly another entry into the field, one who made it very clear that they were not a fan of Terra and wanted to stop her as well. Hmm, another angle in this for me. Whether this new entry was a friend or foe was still to be determined, but until such a time could be figured out, they were an ally of sorts. Both did not want Terra to blow up the assets in the mines. But until the spider was dealt with, no one would have a victory. And it was clear that neither knew how to deal with the spiders either. 

 

"Don't waste blaster fire, it only eats the energy you moof-milkers" Zalis moved herself to the left with her back towards Terra in order to gain a better vantage point. As she moved, she fired a few shots at the spider, hoping that it would provide an opening for the others and that they would heed her words and use a weapon that didn't waste energy. She made a jumping leap towards a large column, turning her body as she did, tossing a vibrodagger towards the energy spider. 

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Zalis turned her head at the newcomer, one who had now fully stepped into the light from at least her perspective. What in the seven hells... a Troig! She had never personally seen one before. Although, she did read up on them during one her early career assassinations as the target had one as a personal assistant. Granted, he was off the night she struck. The awareness of them would make it hard to gain leverage over the situation and therefore would need caution to gain what she needed from this outcome. It was then that it threw two EMP grenades towards a wrecked vehicle. It gave her an opportunity to scan the field and see movement. 

 

She poked her head out to watch them go off upon their intended targets. The movement showed her that Terra had at least three others near her. It was about all that she could see. Movement wise, and numbers made Terra and her fellow Mandalorians the more deadlier foes on the field. From her current position, she would need to move to help pin them down into a tighter firefight. Pulling herself back behind cover, she looked around to see a few things of interest that could help her flush and move. One was a processing loom a good jump on her right. There was also some raw glitterstim directly to her right. She checked her equipment, outside of her blasters and now single vibro dagger, as he other was stuck with the spider who had retreated, she had a single thermal detonator at her disposal. She knew she would want to save it until she was desperate. 

 

Knowing she didn't have much of an option, she lifted her blaster and fired on the raw glitterstim, creating a dust cloud over her area. Jumping up, Zalis took off, pulling her second blaster back out and firing in the general direction of where Terra's companions were at. In her run, she moved down to her right and jumped behind a large durasteel pipe as her cover. The position gave her a strong position to flush the Mandalorians back to be caught in between the fire from the Troig and herself. As she landed, she quickly turned to go low and begin to continue to pour some fire to help push back the Mandalorians.

 

((1))

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The chaos ensued rather quickly and Zalis had her entire thought process turned upside down. After her blaster fire onslaught, the return fire began rather quickly. She saw from the corner of her eyes a flash of something off the durasteel pipe, her gut instincts told her that a grenade of some sorts was about to go off and take her day from bad to worse. So without thinking, she jumped up and ran out and down towards another durasteel column, much closer to where she came in.

 

While she made the attempt to stay low, it ended up being a mistake, for as soon as she got out from behind her cover, she quickly felt a heat searing pain strike her left forearm. It was a clean through shot, and it made her stumble towards the ground as she lost her balance. Upon hitting the ground, her legs must have failed around as her right leg was suddenly feeling the exact same heat searing pain. Instinctively, she allowed herself to remain upon the ground in a roll until she was no longer in a position of immediate danger. 

 

Her mind was racing, as she had to act quickly in order to maintain any form of threat level to the Mandalorians. She looked to her left to see the Troig. It seemed to be on a firing spree, shooting off rockets of sorts and whatever else it had on its arsenal, creating a very large fire arc. Zalis put one of her blasters away, wincing through the pain, which seemed to be more targeted in her forearm. 

 

She knew what she had to do. Closer combat, while dangerous with Mandalorians, was far less dangerous than ranged fighting. They held a supreme upper hand behind cover and remained at a range. Up close though, the ground was evened out slightly more. So now was the time for her thermal detonator. She quickly activated it and sent it hurling towards the direction of the column near the wreckage, but she wanted it to go low to stay out of sight. If it did its job, it would scatter the Mandalorians into her direct path and towards the Troig. If she was lucky, it would also take a few of them out, even temporarily. 

 

After she threw her detonator, she charged hard towards the right of the processing loom that she was sure Terra was behind, but not taking shots at her, but rather the loom, in hopes to blow it up or to cause enough of a disturbance to flush Terra out fully. Zalis just needed to push through the pain she was feeling within her left arm and right calf muscle.

 

((2))

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While Zalis got a very small glimpse at Terra through the mess and hazy that was being created. It was going rather well, all things considering. She wasn’t dead yet and the Mandalorians seemed flustered to some degree. She could really tell what was going on with the others who were in the mines with her any more, only Terra. But that was because she was attempting to stay alive herself and to keep Terra from doing something stupid. 
 

The initial charge didn’t truly flush Terra, so much as the explosions she had created around her caused her to move. It forced the former assassin to change her own plans and make a hard stop and bolt run at her target’s new direction. In the heat of the moment, Zalis crushed and wished hell upon Terra for a quick moment for the next move, but when she gets a chance to look bad, she’ll thank whatever deity she would need for the pure insanely lucky non-fatal strike that almost could have killed her. 

 

With a sharp pain in her right calf, the turn and charge made her stumble and begin to fall in a weird and crazy lurching forward like motion. It was that sharp pain that had her catch a flechette shot in her left side of her stomach, followed rather quickly by a grazing like shot in her upper left shoulder, causing her to hit the ground into a tumble roll, dropping one of her blasters. The roll took her to come rather close with Terra. Close enough that if she wasn’t in the midst of a firefight, she would have noticed the upgraded armor since their last meeting. But such a luxury was not available to her in the moment, just survival. 

 

Instinct took over and she forced herself to stop the roll to gain a good position to open fire with her right hand, nothing major, just a spray of fire to get Terra to move, even if it was towards her in a fist fight. Through the pain, with nothing but pure adrenaline to keep her moving, she withdrew her other vibrodagger and flung it at Terra, followed by a kicking motion. The fling was designed to only put the blade in the woman enough to get her to stop. The kick was designed that the vibrodagger would penetrate the armor. It was her best move she could provide, at least from the stance of not trying to kill Terra. She wanted her opponent to live through this, along with herself. 

 

((3))

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