Deserts, Cowboys, liquor, Drugs, and the Force

[Vindictive]

Tatooine is one of many desert worlds in the galaxy. What makes it unique is its history, constant teaming of life, and the ability to surprise even the most experienced of star-travelers. It's almost as if the planet is alive. Perhaps that was why Elzie and Chassmyne were so drawn to it after ten years of coping and adjusting to the new galactic empire that was established after the groping and devastating destruction of Coruscant. Elzie himself had been to the world many times before to study the depth of force power flowing like a river from the planet, but he had never been back with his sister in tow.

"What are you hoping to find, Elzie?" Chassmyne asked as she sat in the co-pilots seat next to his. They simply sat there and stared at the planet. Elzie seemed to be stuck in his own thoughts.

"I'm trying to find the reason I keep having dreams of this damned world," Elzie spat back. She couldn't blame his anger, though. His dreams and nightmares have been plaguing him so much, he was lucky to be able to fly a ship around a mountain. Chassmyne stood and made her way out of the cockpit and into the lounge-area where their passengers sat comfortably. One of the many ways they acquired credits was through a legitimate taxi service, shuffling passengers all over the galaxy so that they could keep food in their stomachs and fuel in their tanks.

"Attention, passengers; we're arriving at our destination. We're facing technical difficulties at the moment, but we'll be underway shortly," she announced, ignoring the moans, complains, and groans coming from the impatient citizens who had been waiting days to get off the ship. Over and over they would run into pirates, debris, and other sorts of space problems that prolonged their journey until they could fix the damages done.

They couldn't be blamed for not running from the pirates, even though they had passengers aboard, either. In the lower part of the ship, locked and encoded with several safety precautions and a set of passwords only the siblings know so that nosy passengers wouldn't be able to get in, were cases of illegal alcoholic beverages that are sold on the black market, as well as several illegal drugs that could get them thrown into a slam and their ship impounded.

That's right; behind the scenes, they were smugglers. And damned good ones too. With their potent abilities in the force, their skills in combat, and their keen intellect, they smuggled anything they could get a wealthy sum for. It made their faces famous, even to those who people generally tried to avoid or hide from. It was their cover-up from the law, taking on passengers and travelers. Not to mention the unique design of their ship(s).

Chassmyne made her way back to the cockpit and resumed her seat beside her brother, studying his face for any inclination to what he was thinking.

"I sincerely hope this trip was worth it. You know the Hutts control this world and know about any imports or exports coming and going. You know for a fact-

"That they'll know about our cargo and our passengers. I know. We owe nothing to the Hutts. We're our own employers. Trust me; they won't bother us unless they know about the drugs we're bringing. And even then..." elzie interrupted, keeping his gaze locked on the desert world. Without a second to lose, he flipped the ignition switches, punched in the docking codes to send down to the flight towers in Mos Eisley, in pushed forward on the throttle. He was ready to get this job over with and find out why he was being drawn back to the desert... Back to the Hell he trained in for so long...

 

[Canora Sabresong]

"Docking shortly, eh?" Kanari muttered to no one in particular. She looked around at the passengers, seeing no one particularly intersting. She reached down to pet the Anooba that slept at her feet. In truth, she was worried. The sith had spent much of her childhood with her brother on Tattooine, and she thus knew how fast the dunes changed. How fast... Everything... could change. She didnt know what ten years might bring for her.


She looked like a very young adolescent zabrak, although in chronological terms, she was almost thirty standard cycles. She had off-white skin lined with a light mix of iridian, dathomeran (although she did not belong to a dathomeran tribe, and despized their lifestyle,) and traditional sith tattoos. Very little of these actually covered much of her face, rather, a series of jet black stripes rimmed her jawline and crisscrossed her forehead. Her hair, which was tied back in a very long ponytail, was somewhat damp at the ends and smelled of bacta.

Lying on the floor with a full-grown anooba in her lap wasnt the most comfortable position, but despite her job's seeming requirement for intollerance, the pale zabrak wasnt one to complain. She scratched at the base of the longest of the smashed-pentagon pattern of horns on her head, which seemed rather long for a zabrak female. Tired, she pushed the anooba off of her lap. It didnt seem to notice. She took her lightsabre out of her belt, opening the latched side and removing the crystal chamber. She ran her hand across the faceted cut krayt pearl, artificially dyed red and cold from unuse. She listlessly placed it back into it's place in the sabre, stood up, and, without warning, ignited the red sabre.

 

[Vindictive]

People screamed. The general response when the crimson-red blade, signature color of the warrior cultists' weapon, the lightsaber was ignited. In Elzie's mind, The Sith had diversity, and uniquely good people listed in its ranks. In some cases, a Sith is more helpful than a Jedi. but, outnumbering those few wise and powerful Sith, are the typical stereotype; those who had a thirst for power, desire for raw knowledge, and an intense blood-rage that was unquenchable. It was what gave them the evil image they had. He decided to leave the rest of the flying to Chassmyne so he could assess which type of Sith this one was.

He entered the door, finding all the passengers frightened and gathered to one side of the room. Elzie adjusted his tie and black vest, ran his had through his red hair, and lit up a blue cigarette. As he blew out a puff of smoke, he showed the inside of his vest to the Sith, revealing to her his holstered blaster, and the black and silver glint of his own darksaber. He grinned a little.

"Here on holiday?" He asked, taking another puff of the cig as he eyes the confused and scared citizens.

 

[Canora Sabresong]

"I do appologise, sir, I was not... thinking clearly... It is simply that I needed to ignite the blade of my light sabre to test the focusing chamber's feedback, the particular components I used in it's construction tend to degrade in unuse, and I thought it best to test it now rather than have it explode in front of me later." She said in a cautious tone, disengaging the lightsabre and reattatching the weapon to her belt.

She looked around quickly, before kneeling next to her pet anooba, which looked older than her, and began stroking the newly-awakened canine's chin. She coughed considerably loudly, and when she looked back up at the human, or humanoid, it was hard to tell these days, the zabrak's eyes were glowing orange. In truth, she looked somewhat scared, but not of Elzie.

 

[Vindictive]

"Oh, don't be frightened, my friend. I assure you that you did nothing wrong. I'm sure even our troop of passengers even have some weapons hidden somewhere on their persons," Elzie said as he dropped the cigarette and stomped it out. "I'm simply making sure that someone didn't get a case of pandorum or something of the like. The passenger's reaction simply tells me they're all judgmental to the highest degree."

He turned his attention to the scared guests and, using his mind trick ability, had most of them return to their seats. Some of the patrons happened to have stronger minds, but he paid them no mind. He was sure they weren't going to abuse his hospitality by trying to attack himself and his fellow Sith. "We'll be docking shortly, milady. Please, if you've any questions or problems, come to the cockpit door and let us know through the communicator beside the door. Otherwise, for your safety, remain seated until we've landed," he said. Without anything else to say, he returned to the cockpit.

As he resumed his seat, his sister looked over at him. "So what was the commotion about?" She asked. He took over manual controls and placed a trajectory that highlighted on the windshield for him to follow, glowing along side the projected path with bright, blue orbs.

"Just a young lady testing out her lightsaber," he answered honestly.

"Oh! Jedi or Sith?"

"Sith."

"Ah... Jedi are so hard to find now-a-days," she pouted as she flipped a few more switches and grabbed the comm from the dashboard.

"A good-riddance, I say. Cowards couldn't even stay behind to fight off the Sith (not that they would've won). We're in better company with a Sith- No... We're in more honest company with a Sith," Elzie said as Mos Eisley, most famous spaceport in the galaxy, came into view. Carefully, he slowly inched the ship into the wide, tall docking bay and set it down gently, opening the loading ramps and cutting the ships engines off.

"Thank you for flying Lion-Raven spaceline! Please exit the craft in a neat and orderly fashion to avoid anyone getting hurt, or anything getting stolen. We hope you choose us again for your intergalactic travelling needs," Chassmyne said over the comm as Elzie exited the cockpit. He made his way to the loading ramp and stepped out of the ship, feeling the warm rush of the surrounding desert hit his face. His eyes darted around until they rested on a few trandoshans who were eyeing him cautiously before returning to themselves to whisper and gossip.

Using the force, he reached out and tapped into their minds, listening in on their conversation. We'll wait for the people to get out of sight. Once they're gone and no one's around, we'll raid the ship. One of the trandoshans said in his own native tongue. What if the siblings are on the ship? What then, genius? The Hutts don't want them to go missing! They just want their drugs! The second one said, angrily. Well, if they happen to be on the ship, we just kill them with our frask blasters, specifically meant to handle heists, and tell the boss that it was just collateral damage! Said the third. Or that it was out of self-defense. We'll surely get away with it, then!

Elzie simply chuckled. He could take them all on by himself, but something told him to hold off. With their ships security systems, pea-brained trandoshans like them wouldn't be able to even dream of getting inside. He turned his attention back to the exiting passengers, watching them and making sure no one got hurt.

 

[RollingThunder]

Hannibal walked down the loading ramp holding his hand over his eyes, trying to adjust them to the blinding light of the twin suns that orbit Tatooine. While hitching his rucksack onto his back he took his first steps onto the hot ground, silently praising his release from the artificial gravity of the ship. He found it often left him feeling weak, as though he was recovering from a mild flu. He powered through, however.

He kneeled down to tie his bootlaces, making a point to check out the pilots of the ship out of the corner of his eye. Nobody just ferries passengers to Tatooine, yet he couldn't find any sign of cargo in the short amount of time he was on the ship. Probably smugglers. Probably had a secret compartment somewhere. Might be flushed with credits. Hannibal was near broke. Having just paid off his debts with the Hutts by completing a successful string of high-value piracy ops, he found himself once again 1000 credits short of homelessness and without work. At least he still had his blasters and his wits. He had yet to figure out which were more important.

He eyed the Sith next. She was the one who woke him up by igniting that damn lightsaber of hers. Sith were rare, Jedi even rarer, but they always seemed to creep into his life every once and awhile. Hannibal never understood the admiration for them. One well-placed blaster shot can drop a Jedi just as easily as it would a normal person, yet they had this air of mysticism attributed to their lives that he found was undeserved. Whatever. He never let these things bother him too much.

Hannibal stood up and clicked the safety off his blaster pistol. It made a small wuuuuuuur noise. This was Tatooine, after all.

 

[Canora Sabresong]

Herself exiting the ramp, Kanari eyed Hannibal cautiously. She senced... hostile intentions, but it could easilly have been the other passengers, or even the young acolyte's own dark aura. She stopped, halfway to the end of the ramp, and sniffed the air. Trandoshans. That accounted for at least half of the agitation she was sensing. She turned her head back to the ship, then to the trandosians, then back to the human that had confronted her. Something wasnt right.


In the rush of passengers leaving the ship, there was a very short person. He should be short, because, after all, he was half jawa. The rodent, seeing his sith contact, walked silently up to meet with the zabrak. The two looked at eachother, their thoughts unified. The sick zabrak and the hybrid looked at the trandosians, both curious, both ever-cautious. An anooba whined at their feet, almost itsself as tall as Skyrell, which was the name of the hybrid.

Spoiler: In Jawaease pigdin

" Come, Skyrell. We must find out the trandosians' business here."

"Agreed, my love. We must find out. We would owe it to the owners of the ship that brought you home. Come now..."

The two spoke in a swift, allmost incomprihensable manner, then the tall zabrak nodded. The jawa dissappeared into the crowd, using them as a blind of sorts. The zabrak approached more directly, unlike her fiance, she made no effort to hide herself. " Excuse me, trandoshans, might I ask what you're doing here?" she said, lightsabre ready to diflect, but unlit in her clawed hand.

 

[Harbinger]

Harbinger watched from a perch he had taken up that morning. He had been watching the ships come and go, his mind deep in the security camera's and hidden recording devices all over the docks. He had long ago found that the best way to do a good job was wait. He was sure a lowlife would land here soon, fleeing his crimes and bounties.

He had run atleastna dozen or more profiles in the time he had been up on the roof, hidden in a dark corner behind the air exchangers and filters. From overhead he could he easily seen, though his cloak had taken on the look of a large electrical junction box. So unless the odd coloring took your eyes, flying past him was what all ships had done. His attention peaked as he felt not the one force user in the docking bay to his left, but atleast four.

Changing his position he focused his control over that area, tapping their mics and visual equipment. What Harbinger did was not hacking, but more adding the machine to his own conciousness, like adding an eye or an ear. So devices functioned normally, but a skilled slicer or force attuned individual would notice something asmiss. Aiming his blaster rifle through his cloak, the tall droidframe leaned back and took aim. Three camera's, his own eyes, and the surveliance from the hangar gave him multiple vantage points to look over his prey.

'Please be Jedi... Please be... Wait a minute... That Rat again!?' he silently roared. 'Frell... Cant kill him, friends seem like smugglers, cant kill them. Theres that Zabrak again... Friend of the jawa... Great' he groaned as he spied on them, something had to happen soon, he needed to kill someone today or it would be the whole spaceport!

 

[RollingThunder]

Hannibal sensed the Zabrak's wave of consciousness pass over him yet again. That made him angry. He already didn't like Tatooine. He hadn't been in this system in a few years yet... things seemed different. He watched the Sith approach a group of Trandoshans, her lightsaber in hand. He instinctively place his hand on his modified SE-14C blaster pistol, re-checking the safety. He activated his holographic datapad attached to his wrist and booted up his most updated version of the Imperial Facial Recognition software. One of the Trandoshans had a 5000 credit bounty on his head. His anti-splicing software immediately flared, causing his datapad to shutdown. Something was wrong.

Hannibal immediately un-holstered his blaster pistol. Let them kill each other, whoever survives is his.

He slowly made his way closer to the group, preparing for a confrontation.

 

[Vindictive]

[I have to say this considering past experiences with open threads; this is a character development thread. Death and fighting are allowed, but it's not the goal of the thread. I enjoy your writing styles, but don't start a fight that isn't appropriate for the situation. There will be plenty as it progresses. Again, nothing personal against anyone, and no offense if that wasn't your original goal, but I have to make the point loud and clear.]

Elzie watched as a few of the passengers noticed the group of Trandoshans on their own. The pea-brained lizards were too dumb to realize the attention they were bringing to themselves, though it wasn't really like Elzie minded. He figured it would be a good idea to let them threaten the Sith or someone else. And then he could pay whoever for killing them off and keeping his investment safe. While it was an entertaining idea, he decided against it. Should they follow him in the near future, he would have to deal with them at that point. Currently, his goal was to deliver the packages. He simply had to wait for all prying eyes to leave the area.

"Those trandoshans are staring pretty hard at you, Elzie," Chassmyne said, following the last of the passengers off the ship.

"Yeah. I'm not worried. Not only would they have to deal with us, but the sith from earlier has noticed them as well," he said, peaking back at her. Whether she actually did or not, Elzie didn't know. He didn't care to try and invade the womans' privacy either. He was making a simple assumption to keep his sister from worrying.

"Whatever you say. I've got a few things I've been wanting to do since we left the port on Nar Shadaa. I'll keep my comm active," she said before going on her way and leaving the docking bays. The trandoshans only casted a glance, then their attention turned back to themselves and him. Now his only concern were the delivery, and the contact he was supposed to meet at the port who was terribly late.

 

[Harbinger]

Harbinger watched the goings on between the two who first stepped off the ship, the jawa halfbreed, the sith and the transdoshans. He kept linking security cameras as he watched the male of the first pair seperate and walk off without so much as a care in the world. He turned his scope to the reptiles that were soon to be dead and made sure to ID their electronic equipment for future tracking. The sith and the jawa, well if he stayed out of their way a while longer the better after what happened in Anchorhead. Slinging his rifle back into his cloak, Harbinger let his disguise melt away as he stood. The million tendrils becoming a cloak once more. 'Lets see now... Where are you off too my friend?' he asked himself as he climbed down from his perch and walked into the open of the landing bay.

Walking past the transdoshans, the antique droid gave them a menacing glare, taking his time as he passed them. He skirted around Skyrell and his zabrak friend, less be said between them the better after you threaten a mans life. He was after the mans employers, high ranking scum always made better bouties after all. Though, in broad daylight he did stand out something fierce.