Pre-TL Tarisian Showdown

[Eccles]

Preef figured he'd turn twenty any day now, at least, he hoped he'd reach twenty considering the tall tales Tutch Hall had been telling. Tutch was a human and like all humans he was overconfident yet charismatic. The fact that Preef and three others blindly followed him was testimony to the latter. That they were meeting with a shady character for a rumored assassination job was proof of the former.

At least the venue was picked, wait- No, the meeting point was a bunch of crap, too. The slums on Taris had makeshift houses and cantina's in old derelict spaceships and old cargo containers, which had a novelty to them, if it wasn't for the warm yellow smog everywhere. Tutch had picked the "Cockpit Cantina" as the meeting spot because he enjoyed the view, for it was one of only few derelict spaceships with intact windows, but it was also cramped, filled with undesirables and literally anyone could see them discuss business from the other side of the large window panels.

As the youngest member of Tutch's posse, Preef didn't dare to challenge the infamous human outlaw outright. Not while knowing, from Tutch's own words, that he outdrew three Tarisian security officers to rob a credit vault just last year. That act was no doubt the reason they'd gotten this job in the first place.

Tutch might as well have paid for a HoloNet commercial saying; "The infamous gunslinger Tutch Hall has no scruples and will murder anyone if the price is right."

So that's how Preef ended up worrying about his mortality while sitting in a cantina booth with Tutch Hall. "You're new, Preef-" the human said while sucking on a cigarra, "-but this is what freedom is all about. You get some credits from those that don't need 'em and you move on. Don't let yourse-" he paused abruptly and turned his head towards the sickly-looking teenage waitress, "-not right now, darlin'-" but she didn't budge and pointed at his half-empty glass of Commenor Brandy, "-I said,-" Tutch unholstered one of his blasters and put it in plain view on the table, "-not now."



@Malon @Logan

OOC: Preef Callo CS

 

[Logan]

______________

Things hadn't exactly been going Xanthippe's way lately and it had caused her to really hate the shit-hole known as Taris. Born here, Xan had always known about the sleazy underbelly of the planet, but had never really experienced it for herself until recently. She'd grown up in the upper city with fresh air, a view of the sun and a comfortable family life. Of course, she hadn't known about her dad's raging gambling debts coupled with his seemingly massive lack of skills in pazaak.

So eventually Xan's entire life went up in flames - literally - when one of the local gangs finally got fed up and they torched her house and capped her dad. She and her mom happened to make it through the fire, but with all their shit gone and nowhere else to go, whelp, to the lower city they went. The idea of revenge never really left Xan's mind, so as soon as she was able to scrape some credits together, she made a few calls.

And that's what had lead her to the Cockpit Cantina, to meet a man Tutch. Xan just happened to be walking into the cantina when Tutch himself seemed to be getting a little tense with one of the waitresses. Xan hadn't seen a whole hell of a lot of blaster pistols in her life but the shock had worn off quickly after spending just a little time around the undercity cantinas. Regardless, she didn't really like where Tutch seemed to be heading.

"I aint paying you to kill waitresses," She said, doing her best to seem un-intimidated and like she belonged sitting at a table with a hired murderer and his alien compadre, when it was more likely Xan looked like she belonged in some hipster coffee house shitting on whatever was popular at the moment. "Or do I need to find someone else, like your buddy there?" Xan said, raising an eyebrow and jutting her thumb towards Preef as she sat down.

Pulling out a pack of cigarettes, Xan slid one out and light it, blowing a thin haze of smoke out of her nose. She also grabbed a datapad and slid it over toward Tutch and Preef. "This is who," She said quietly, ashing her smoke into an empty glass. "And I'm going to come with you. Half now, half when its done. Deal?"

Xanthippe's heart was pounding, her anxiousness growing. She was unsure just how much she was showing on the outside, but the young woman was doing her best to remain composed around the bounty hunters. She didn't want them thinking she was some kind of pushover.

ooc: Link to CS. Has no info but you can at least get a visual of what xan looks like.

@Ecclessey @Malon

 

[Malon]

Bryx Dryden was the opposite of Xan. Decades in the Outer Rim mixed with a lifetime's worth of alcohol had erased anything he could consider nerves around the galaxy's bounty hunting population. Taris wasn't exactly home, but it was a close second. Not that he liked the place—it was essentially discount Coruscant, and it smelled like a Nal Hutta sewer—but he had been to Taris enough times that the familiarity he felt with his surroundings was comparable to slipping into an old, sweaty boot.

Experience taught him how to deal with bounty hunters and Taris in general. In the hunting profession, there was no such thing as "honor." It was about who got the mark and brought it back first. Credits didn't care who got the mark or how they got it and Bryx didn't either. He wasn't much for Mandalorian honor, either. Honor had gotten the Mandalorians killed. These days, there were about as many Mandalorians running around as there were Jedi. Anyone who might have wanted to hold him to any sort of code was dead or hiding—and he didn't see much "honor" in hiding, so the living ones would have a hard time holding this against him.

The derelict spaceport, which had been abandoned for over a millennia since the Sith bombed it to hell in ancient times, was a known meeting place for bounty hunters looking to get job that weren't as easily traced with pucks and tracking fobs. Jobs given at the spaceport were done the old fashion way, which is how Bryx liked them. Sound carried far in those old empty corridors, so the Mandalorian could simply prop himself up in a high-up, broken-out viewport, kick his legs up, and listen in to whatever was going on below.

From there, it was all about getting to the target first or eliminating the competition along the way. Maybe both. He was looking forward to seeing what type of job this would be. He was anxious to get off of Taris and put as many lightyears between himself and this dungheap as was galactically possible. @Logan @Ecclessey

 

[Eccles]

Preef wasn't sure if Tutch, while usually full of bravado, seemed intimidated by the young girl's entrance, or had just some excess saliva that made him swallow. Either way, Preef's eyes bulged a little when the human girl suggested he could do the job instead of Tutch. That was usually a prompt that could get the young rodian killed by a blaster bolt in the back and he wasn't very keen on dying before his twentieth birthday.

Tutch in his turn snorted with laughter and holstered the blaster pistol, "Preef here can't even hit a Sarlacc with that blaster of his." The human outlaw grinned confidently again, knowing that the young rodian would never have the guts to challenge him. He took one look at the datapad and slid it over to Preef, who took it up from the table and studied it meticulously. Kriff, the target was unmistakenly a member of the Tarisian elite and they weren't easy to get the jump on.

His boss didn't seem to care, though. He wanted off Taris and he kept telling them that they needed one big score and then they'd buy a sweet place at the beach on some Outer Rim world undiscovered by bounty hunters. The risk meant nothing to him, "Ten thousand credits, you sure you got that little girl?" To Preef's dismay, Tutch licked his lips and looked the young girl up and down. "If not I'm sure we can work something out. The Tutch Hall Gang could use a pretty girl to clean our beach-side mansion."

Here's hoping there wasn't a bounty hunter within earshot that just heard Tutch identify himself by what the Bounty Hunter's Guild called him on their posters.

If Xan had the credits, or at least the first five thousand, they'd shake hands and leave the cantina together. The Tutch Hall Gang, all four gunslingers, jumped into a speeder van and made plenty of space for their guest, albeit awfully close to the boss.

@Malon @Logan

 

[Logan]

______________

Xan didn't say much to Tutch's obvious antagonism. It was pretty clear he thought he was cock of the walk and took Xan for just some kid that could be bullied by some street tough flaunting his gun around. A momentary thought of blasting Tutch in the back of he head when he wasn't looking flashed across Xan's mind, but she rolled her eyes and shook it away for now.

She'd flick the five thousand credit chit towards Tutch and follow him and Preef towards a speeder van, though Xan made a point to sit closer to Preef and as far away from Tutch as physically possible. The man just seemed sleazy and greasy from a distance, Xan couldn't fathom how gross he'd be sitting right next to him.

It wouldn't take long for the van to get to where they were headed. Pulling out a smoke, Xan lit it and eyed Tutch for a moment. "So, do you have a plan? Bounty hunters don't get as old and weathered as you are without making decent plans." Letting out a puff of smoke, Xan shrugged her shoulders a bit. "Or maybe you're not usually the brains of an operation, what do I know?"

Xan couldn't help but let a small smirk crease her lips, having a bit of fun taking the piss out of Tutch. He'd learn that he wasn't the only one that could make snide remarks and get away with it. Xan wasn't quite sure of the source of her newfound bravado, but she wasn't going to question the confidence pick-me-up now. As the van came to a halt a little bit outside of the mark's location, Xan eyed both Tutch and Preef critically.

They hadn't much time to waste.

@Ecclessey @Malon

 

[Eccles]

Tutch's eyes closed after Xan's remark, but despite Preef fear that he'd lash out a smile crept on the face of the human gunslinger. "You just make sure you're good for the credits, little girl" he said, ominously, as the speeder continued to race closer towards its destination.

Preef's heart was almost beating out of his chest when he looked away from the tense exchange between the girl and the boss and instead tried to seek comfort in the faces of Otis and Motis, the weequay twins that had been rolling with Tutch for somewhat close to a decade. The young rodian noticed the smirks that both tried to hide as if they knew where that girl would end up if Tutch had his way. Preef had to admit that she was a beauty, for a human, but he wasn't quite ready betray his word and kidnap her at the end of this ordeal and the guilt he already felt over something that might happen if his companions got their way was.. unsettling. He hadn't felt like this before. His world was one filled with cutthroat people and those that made the choice to be materialistic while they could run away. Was this girl's job, which seemed like a lot like dealing out either revenge or justice, the equivalent of her becoming someone who deserved to be shot?

The pit in his stomach hadn't disappeared when the speeder suddenly stopped at a side door into one of Taris' luxury skyscrapers, "Preef you're with me-" Tutch suddenly said as he jumped out of the speeder and shot the door's lock. "-bring the girl. The twins will cover our backs." As Preef climbed out of the speeder to follow the human he noticed that the two weequays nodded mischievously to Tutch and then to one another. Worried for her safety and also his own, seeing as the girl had suggested to Tutch that Preef could easily replace him, Preef took Xan by the arm "Stick close to me," he said softly and then nodded to Tutch, "Ready, boss."

The next few minutes were quite unremarkable. Twice Tutch pointed his blaster at either a resident or a maintenance worker and both times he got access to the elevators before putting a bolt in his unlucky victims. It didn't take more time to reach the level where their target lived, but just short of the front door Tutch stopped and turned to Xan, blaster in hand. "Now," he said, the familiar smirk returning to his face with his blaster aimed at her gut. "Tell me what you want from Dravos? I'm sure him and his guys would pay well if I delivered them someone who's gunning for them."

Kriff, the karker is trying to renegotiate his deal. Everyone in this sector knew that Dravos was a bad loan shark and very fond of making public examples of people who crossed him. That wasn't a fate Preef wished on the girl, but he also couldn't bring himself to draw on Tutch. For one he'd never win and even if he did there were two weequays behind him and neither was against shooting people in the back.



@Malon @Logan