This thread starts off on Kessel.
If you want to join, make sure you have a reason to be on a Pyke Syndicate spice processing and packaging facility.
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Davik nursed a glass of Corellian whiskey between his left thumb and index finger while he massaged his forehead with his right. It had been a crazy week. Sector Rangers almost caught him on Chandrila with a priceless painting under his arm and Coruscant was in a lockdown due to a recent Sith attack and he had to reroute to deliver spice in a mid-space transfer that came with its own near-fatal issues. It had felt as a relief to touchdown on Kessel again, but ofcourse suddenly the Pyke start haggling over his smuggling fee because the Coruscant shipment didn't go smooth enough to their likening. "Kriffing bastards," Davik sighed and shook his head. Once he'd hit hyperspace with the shipment he was going to curl up on the cushions of the Catscratch and take a good long nap.
"Davik Lorso?" a droid came up behind him, prompting Davik to turn on his barstool and nod, "yeah". It took a moment while the droid was looking at its datapad for confirmation, but it delivered a crippling blow when it looked up again; "We're ready to load the spice into your ship. If you could tell your friend to land it again."
Davik blinked once, alright twice. "Say what?" The Catscratch was on its designated pad, he left it there.. the cargo doors were open for the Pykes, but.. "We're ready to load the spice into your ship. If you could your friend to land it again." the droid repeated his message verbatim, thinking Davik hadn't heard it.
Suddenly rising from his stool, Davik pushed the droid backwards. "I kriffing heard you, you karking piece of Jawa-dented metal!" Someone had stolen his ship right under the nose of the Pyke Syndicate! Not bothering to reply to the droid, the smuggler rushed out and towards the landing pad where his beloved ship was supposed to be. There, he found only the Pyke's droids and the crates that were supposed to go into his ship. Again he was approached by a droid, "We're waiting on your ship, Davik Lorso. We're on a tight schedule." Davik ignored him and looked at the sky, but while some light freighters were hovering, waiting for their turn to land, he didn't see his Lethisk-class Armed Freighter among them.
"Someone stole my ship," the smuggler whispered incredulously and turned towards the waiting droid. "I must insist you land your ship immediately," it said rather indignant, which was further amplified by Davik's seeming unwillingness to comply with the simple request. The human's mind was racing, slowed perhaps by the growing feelings of sadness, hopelessness and rage. "Where's your comms unit?" he finally asked. The droid overseer had its own unit to instruct ships to land on his pad and could broadcast to every ship in and around orbit. It immediately turned and pointed towards a nearby console, "I'm glad you see reason." But Davik hadn't and he wasn't about to tell his ship to come down, well, he would have if he could. Getting over to the console, Davik extended its range to maximum and grabbed the microphone.
"If whoever just took my ship would please return it," the message would reach all nearby smugglers, including the Pyke Syndicate operators inside the palace, which meant he wasn't getting anymore spice smuggling jobs from the Pykes anytime soon. "You better bring it back right now or I'm going to choke your eyes out of your skull and piss in your- DZzzt" the connection was cut remotely and Davik's continued tirade was only heard by the droid next to him who looked increasingly uncomfortable, if indeed a droid could show his discomfort. Eventually Pyke security guards, accompanied by the Pyke Overseer, pulled Davik off the console and smacked him into submission on the ground.
The Overseer was Pyke, ofcourse, and eyed Davik with amusement. "So you got your ship stolen while getting a drink? Amateur, haah!" If merely staring at the lankly alien would do all the thinks Davik was now considering doing it would shock the droid into malfunction, for it would be extremely cruel and fatal. But, the Overseer was a Pyke. The Pykes were a powerful syndicate, which in turn was part of the underworld-reigning Five Syndicates. As such, Davik bit his tongue. The Pyke was further amused by this turn of events, immensely enjoying the power he held over independent smugglers. "Now let's see," he produced a datapad and swiped around a bit until a holographic image appeared of a rodian sneaking into the Catscratch just a minute or so before takeoff. Davik didn't recognize the frog, but he didn't doubt that the Pyke would. "Seems like Leng Tan is the culprit, which makes sense since we-" he used a 'royal we' to show his authority on this facility, "-confiscated his ship when he came short on the payment."
All of this was highly amusing to the Pyke Overseer who saw the independent smuggler for exactly what they are: thirteen in a dozen of utterly desperate beings that just happen to own a spaceship. There weren't many as accomplished in Davik's field as Shadowpaw, so the Pyke could do with smugglers whatever they wanted. "You have thirty minutes to leave our planet or we'll be forced to arrest you for trespassing and put you to work in the mines." All three Pykes now laughed and walked off, leaving Davik laying on the floor, jaw clenched and imaging himself working to death in one of those spice mines.
Maybe a friendly smuggler would take him?