Ask Nar Shaddaa Shaddaa Baba

[Marissa Hesse]

​

Preef’s fame has spread further in the galaxy than Marissa had any reasonable expectation of it doing so. There were some rather immediate and obvious downsides of being a famous criminal, those came to her first. Anonymity was gone for starters, and that extra level of scrutiny was hardly something any clandestine operation exactly needed.

But, she had to admit, there were a series of benefits as well. The additional income and name recognition for the Zaa Fenn was hardly a downside, work had been flooding in for there family ever since “Preef Proof 2: A Speeder to Freedom” had come out in the Core Worlds. She made a concerted effort herself to keep her apparent involvement limited. While she could handle herself, if anyone wanted to send a hit squad after them Preef was much better skilled to survive it. It only made sense then that, with such a sudden shot in the arm, they threw themselves up the criminal hierarchy, and fast, with Preef as that figurehead. Marissa herself, despite her ambitions, was exceedingly comfortable as the power behind the throne. And at base, Preef was her oldest and closest companion in the business, such a change wouldn’t change that, or likely their professional relationship either. She was still the planner.

And as such, in their plan to hit Gori where it hurt, she knew a set of symbolic moves would weaken him faster than any factory hit or spice lab being destroyed. And their floating penthouse, ‘The Bawdy Bantha’, was a prime target for sinking. Literally,

“The engines have a fallback generator even if we hit the main one, so we’ll need it hit both to take it offline” Marissa gestured between the penthouse floating above them and the blueprint holo she’d managed to acquire, laying out the basic plan,

“And make it off before it sails into the undercity. Though I shouldn’t think it’ll be a problem” she looked at her companion with a sly smile. She was confident, this was a bold move. But the first of many, ones that would send them to the top.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Vri's first time off world and it's a Syndicates job on Nar Sha-kriffing-da, fantastic. Sure, this entire planet was effectively old Level 1313 stretched across an entire planet, and it was making Vri feel right at home, but at the very least if she wasn't on the clock she could have enjoyed some undiluted spice and a few Twi'lek dancers. You still needed to maintain a veneer of legality back on Coruscant, so you couldn't really do all the fun stuff you wanted with a suitcase full of glitterstim and a trio of oiled tail-heads. Hopefully this would be a quick op and Vri could wrangle up an afterparty before booking it home. Maybe she talk this Hesse chick into sticking around, she had great legs but looked to be the 'small glass of wine, a good book, and ordering a hit on someone before bed' type.

Beyond wanting to get to the actually fun parts of this giant hive of scum and villainy, Vri was also interested in trying to look competent in front of someone who was higher up in the Syndicates food chain. Vri was one punk in a gang of punks that ran around the fringes of the 5S, an organization whose chief members had sold the Son-Tuul out to the Empire generations ago. Sure, Vri wasn't some Rodian diehard who took that sort of kark seriously, it wasn't personal, but she knew her gang wasn't the big fish in the proverbial pond, and she wasn't a big fish in her gang. She needed to turn some heads if she wanted to climb off the goon-ladder.

"Alright, so what's the play?" She looked over the plans, trying to figure out what Hesse's plan was to get into this flying fark-pad. She caught the woman's smirk and shot back a far less subtle grin of her own. "I mean, I could shoot at it a few times but I don't think that's going to cut it."

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Vri was new to the Zaa Fenn’s employ, but the reputation of Son-Tuul was not something Marissa was unaware of. Indeed, she meant to take full advantage of that bloodthirsty streak she understood them to have,

“No you’re right, a few blaster bolts won’t do on their own. But we’re here to make a statement, that Gori, and any of their followers, shouldn’t think themselves so invulnerable” she flicked the holo off and slid the layout into her pocket,

“And so we’ll wake them up, go loud” Marissa flashed a belt of grenades beneath her coat to her ally, unclipping it and handing it over to them “they think their safe in home territory. We’ve got the element of surprise, so let’s make sure it’s quite a surprise” it was clear enough then what the plan was, they were going to storm the place. The Rodian, though they were new, had an obvious grit to them that Marissa was keen to exploit. The plan, really, was simple, it just needed speed.

Speeder to the back entrance, near engineering. Beeline to the backup generator and blow it. Loop back past the engines, blow them. Jet off from that same landing pad. If they kept their pace then they’d be in and out in in minutes, and the penthouse would fall like a Hutt out of the sky. This all she explained to Vri on the speeder drive up, pulling up and around to the landing bay at the rear, going over the locations of the two generators.

A year ago perhaps she would have only done such a hit in desperation, a plan like this was something she sent other people on. She’d cultivated an image of thinker, planner, leader, one she intended to keep. But, and maybe it was simply her competitive nature, she wanted at least one story told about her if the whole enterprise failed. Then she could fall back into the shadows of her office and plan the next days business once more.

Touching down at the back, she could already spy the guards by the rear entrance raising their weapons in suspicion. She put one hand on Vri’s shoulder and drew her blaster, picturing the route through the penthouse in her mind,

“Ready?”

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Vri eyed the belt of high-explosives like a poor kid who'd just gotten a very expensive Life Day present. They didn't exactly hand out grenades in the Son-Tuul, and any bombs she'd used before were homemade by the same spaced-out junkies that cooked the gang's spice, so reliability was something of an issue. But even as she unzipped her jacket and clipped the belt underneath, she could tell this was some real, military-grade power.

"Aw, and here I didn't get you a thing." Power plays and symbolic gestures of 'kriff you' were less important to Vri than her new tools of murder and mayhem. If this was the type of kit the Zaa Fenn brought on a job then Vri might be willing to trade up from the Son-Tuul to a higher, better armed class of organization. Once the grenades were secure, she slapped on her helmet and zipped up her flight jacket for the fight ahead.

Having provided the swoop bike that was essential to this plan, Vri decided to take it easy on Hesse (and not completely give away their approach) by easing up to the rear entrance of the penthouse. Or at least, as easy as anyone can fly a de-limited Skyblade swoop bike in the middle of Nar Shadda. The penthouse itself looked like the sort of thing an extremely tacky Pyke would buy in a fit of spice-fueled delirium, a piece of abstract art with engines bolted to it. Just looking at the thing, Vri would have been willing to destroy it just to rid the galaxy of such an eyesore.

She pulled around the back as quickly as possible, seeing that there were already guards in place moving for their blasters and their comlinks. Vri barely let them, or Marissa for that matter, utter a word before cutting the engine and pulling the cut-down EE-3 and Power 5 blasters from their holsters, both hanging from her bike. She started firing wildly in the direction of the stunned guards, and six shots with both weapons later the deck guards were sizzling on the ground and the back door was checkered with her less-than-accurate shots.

"I'm always ready, you just try to keep up." With that, she dismounted the bike and marched toward the door, bold as brass despite the kriff-storm possibly waiting for them on the other side.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

As the guards dropped dead against the penthouse floor, Marissa leapt the door to her speeder and joined Vri as she powered forwards to the floating palaces rear entrance. It was loud, noisy, messy, but it was exactly what Marissa had asked for. Following up behind she raised her own blaster and picked off the camera that hung above the door, shorting it in a fizz of sparks and fire,

"Then after you" her words sparked back as she let Vri push forwards into the building. Entering through the main door, the alarms began to blare. As Vri dealt with guards and caused havoc, Marissa followed on picking off cameras, extras, calling out directions to the rear generator as they moved fast and light through the penthouses bowels,

"Left hallway, right second door, opening on the left" she shouted over the blare, keeping them steps early, making sure they didn't need to stop and consult even as blaster bolts began to sail around them. The pace was pulse pounding, and while the adrenaline cooked up in her, she had to fight to stop the memories of Kessel resurfacing. They had a plan here, on their own terms, not just foot soldiers in the meatgrinder of syndicate politicking.

This would be better.

"We're certainly causing a scene" she cracked, squeezing off shots with every step. Preef would be proud at her aim.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Vri pushed into the ship without hesitation, blasters up and firing at anything that moved. Guards, servant droids, terrified partygoers, it didn't matter, Vri was too hopped up on adrenaline and the smell of carbon scoring to care what she was shooting at. Thankfully Marissa was there to keep her on track, and finish off anyone her haphazard shooting didn't completely kill, since it wasn't easy to dual-wield a heavy blaster pistol and a cut-down carbine, and shoot accurately. In fact it was quantity more than accuracy that let Vri carve her swathe through the ship.

"If you think this is a scene, you need to get out mo-KRIFF!" Rounding the second right, a blaster bolt caught Vri square in the side of her helmet, knocking her momentarily off-kilter before she regained enough awareness to scramble back around the corner, grabbing Marissa and dragging her with him.

Apparently, much to Vri's annoyance, the guards had decided to stop running out into the hallway and getting mowed down like grass, and instead were lodged in the very doorway they needed to move through, stacked up with pistols pointing forward.

"Kark-kicking...scrat-humping...ugh!" They'd shot at her, killed her buzz, and probably scratched her helmet, this was now personal. She pulled a grenade from her jacket and blindly tossed it around the corner without a second thought.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Marissa felt Vri grab her waist and toss her to the side as blaster bolts tore past and exploded against the wall behind the two of them. The surprise of their assault was wearing off it seemed. Security had been scattered and hardly able to respond properly when they’d first blown inside, and they’d made plenty of progress in those opening minutes. But now, they were pinned down all too close to their first objective.

Well, at least they were until the grenade detonated.

The blast shook the penthouse walls around them, and the sound of shouts and cries shot down the hall passed them. Staying low, Marissa glanced out from the wall Vri had thrown her behind. The opening was covered in fire, half blasted to bits, but the blaster fire had stopped,

“Best keep moving” she called up to her ally before stepping out and starting to run again, keeping an eye on the hall behind them as they moved forward further in. There was only another door to the first generator after this one, but with the security hot on their tails it wasn’t going to get any easier.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

The blast was fantastic, almost enough to make up for getting shot in the head by some rent-a-ranger security goon, but not quite. Vri decided she would feel a lot better when she was back on solid ground, watching this ship crash into the Nar Shadda undercity in a smoldering heap.

"Oh ho, don't you get me started, boss." That was half playful teasing, half serious threat, as Vri didn't like her destructive capabilities being questioned, especially by someone who looked like they belong on the cocktail circuit.

With Hesse taking point Vri decided to cover their backs, since security had finally decided to step up their game and Vri wasn't interested in getting shot in the back of the head next. Hopefully the threat of grenades would keep security on the backfoot, at least long enough for them to cause some proper havoc.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

stepping over rubble and moving through the door as the flames died down, Marissa's eyes darted about checking every corner for security forces looking to cut them off. While they were aware they were it was unlikely they were aware of the target of their assault, and that still gave them an advantage.

The transition from the public areas of the ship to the engineering section was swift and obvious. The space before had been heavily decorated, gaudy even, smooth finishing and excessive trimmings. But now everything was strictly utilitarian, meant only for the eyes of the indebted engineers that had to make the repairs down here when things went wrong. The whole scene was darker by comparison, the flashing alarm lights having less to bounce off. If she didn't already knew where they were going then they'd been in trouble. Luckily for them, she still remembered,

"Left" a final call that sent them through a door. She didn't even bother trying to open it smoothly, blasting the control panel ot force the door open. Passing through swiftly, the backup generator stood before them, wreathed in a humming energy shield that stopped them getting any closer,

"I drop the shield, you blow it once its down" she turned to explain as she dashed over to the control console at its bottom,

"And, keep me covered, won't you?"

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Stepping out of the ritzy main halls of the ship and into the dull, dingy maintenance corridors almost felt like taking a trip back home, as the combination of grated durasteel, flashing lights, and rusting walls reminded Vri of Coruscant. Even without Hesse' instructions, Vri had enough awareness of power lines and maintenance signs to know where the generator likely was. Sure, having Marissa around was faster and improve the view a bit, but still.

Vri took some primal delight in watching Marissa just blast open the door controls, leaving the sparking console box behind as they stormed the shielded generator room. Shielded? Had that been in the plan? Vri couldn't remember, and in all honesty she hadn't been paying full attention earlier. Thankfully the boss seemed to know what to do.

"Yeah, sure thing boss." Vri stuffed her pistol into her belt, taking a grenade in her free hand and awkwardly aiming her unbalanced carbine down the hallway with her free hand. Hopefully if anyone came down the hallway while she was on guard duty they'd have the decency to miss the first few shots and give her a chance to clap back.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Ever since that little job on Naboo Marissa had always made a point to keep a computer spike on her person. And since they’d picked up that slicer on Denon it had become all the more potent. Alarms blaring, Marissa slid the chip into the side of the console. The screen lit up in an instant, data scrolling across its face as in seconds the spike cracked through the consoles security leaving the functions wide open to her.

She glanced up quick, she couldnt see thme, but she could hear the clatter of footsteps coming down the hall from where they’d come from. If she remembered correctly they copy’s take the rear exit and be close to the main generator afterwards, the job nearly done. That was their next step she guessed.

With a whir the shield dropped around the generator, exposing the core.

Marissa popped the spike and ran up behind Vri, tapping them on the shoulder and subbing in to cover,

“Plant those bombs, then out the back, last generator is at the end of the hallway” she directed, keeping the plan clear “I cover you now”

Giving Vri space to leave, Marissa raised her blaster and squeezed off a trio of rounds down the hallway, suppressing the approaching guards, striking one in the shoulder and throwing them back into the ground. She’d hold here till Vri left the room, then follow her to their final objective.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

As Marissa began to slice into the generator shield, Vri heard a trio of guards stomping their way down the maintenance corridor and decided to give them something to think about. She fired four shots down the hall just as the first guard rounded the corner, but on account of her wonky positioning and one-handed grip, the man escaped with only a singed jacket and a lot of cursing from his comrades. Vri was preparing to pop a grenade and really give the goons something to panic about, when Marissa tapped her on the shoulder and stepped forward.

"Finally, we get to blow something up!" She grinned eagerly under her helmet and hopped over the guard railing into the generator structure.

While Vri knew her way around a swoop engine, she wasn't a starship engineer and wasn't sure where was the best place to plant the charges from a mechanical perspective. Not that this stopped her, instead she shoved half her remaining bombs into any crevice or glowing panel she could find before slipping out the other side of the generator, reaching the door.

She hadn't reached the controls before the door slid open and an engineer, probably scared out of his wits and trapped in the maintenance tunnels when the shooting started, clubbed her over the head with a hydrospanner. Her helmet took the brunt of the blow, but Vri felt the force of the hit and was knocked completely off balance as the terrified Sullustan threw himself against her and tried to throw her over the railing in desperation.

But Vri bounced back too quickly, planting her knee firmly in the man's gut, causing him to double over as she grabbed the back of his head and slammed it repeatedly into the railing, denting both. As the Sullustan, and the remains of his skull, bled out on the grating Vri poked her dented, carbon-scored helmet out the door and found no one waiting for them.

"Quit playing grab-frak, we're clear!" She ducked around the corner and leveled both her blasters, aiming to keep the hallway clear until Hesse reached her.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Scorch marks from blaster bolts were scattered about the doorway as Marissa fired back at the security guard who still assaulted their position. She’d managed to hit another whirl Vri dealt with the untimely intrusion of the engineer, but the last one had been shifty, a shistavanen whose fur was so scarred it may had well have shaved it off.

As Vri cried out to Marissa she fired off a last suppressing volley as she leapt up and back, throwing herself with speed as fast as she could across the platforms and out into the hall, jumping over the engineers body without a second thought. There was no time to have any, really.

With holding the point Marissa pushed into the final generator room. The door opened onto a room larger than the backup had been, a column of energy crackling in the centre of an otherwise circular room, where monitor desks and command consoles were arrayed in a ring around it. They simply needed to plant them, and get the kriff off the palace.

That, however, would be easier said than done,

“Oh. Kriff.” Marissa said, mouth agape. The security had figured out their goal after all.

On the other side of the room a dozen men with blasters were lined up, ready for them. That would make it just a little more interesting.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Once Hesse was clear, and Vri got her bearings back, she turned around to keep their backs covered while the human took point on the next generator room. However, she'd barely gotten situated before she heard Hesse utter a solid 'kriff' upon seeing what was inside the main generator chamber. Vri barely got a chance to look before she reflexively grabbed Marissa and dragged her to safety, again, before a hail of blaster bolts flooded the open doorway.

"Hey, focus up! I don't get paid if you get shot!" Vri barely had time to give Marissa a good shake before another bolt whizzed past her head from the other direction, causing her to fire blindly behind them with both weapons. The nearly hairless Shistavanen from before ducked back behind cover, pinned down but unharmed.

"We're caught in a kriffing crossfire here, think of something!" Vri used her pistol to fire a steady, if inaccurate stream of bolts down at the pinned canine, hoping to keep him down long enough for Hesse to get them out of this jam.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

Vri’s reaction speed was proving rather invaluable, and why Marissa tended to avoid going on these missions. She could hold her own sure, but there were people who spent their lives doing this sort of Kriff. She preferred an operation where the bad guys were already gone before they got there. Much cleaner, always ran smoothly.

This, this was no longer smooth.

Momentum had certainly carried them far, all the way to this engine room and into the jaws of a dozen dolts with blaster trained on their heads. She was always supposed to be the one with the plan, but her plans were the ones that happened before the day even started. This, this was a Preef kind of event. And so, she meant to think like him. What would he do? Well, shoot straighter than she had been for one. But beyond that,

“Well you better hope I don’t get shot now” she said, clearly searching for the humour in the moment “just get ready to toss those grenades”

Striking out from their position in a gap in the fire, she pivoted, easing her gun up she fired a trio of shots up at the lighting rig hanging in engine rooms gallery, sending it speaking and crashing into the ground. The engine room was plunged into darkness, except for the blue hum at the centre. Marissa truly didn’t think they’d be able to outshoot that many men, but if they just detonated the grenades and ran, they had a chance,

“Blow that thing and let’s go”

She was already getting herself on the move back, blaster up to deal with that shistavanen that would still be blocking their way.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

While Marissa did...something useful hopefully, Vri spent her time trading wild, desperate blaster fire with the Shistavanen, who was apparently sitting in their escape route. Which meant they were both pretty much kriffed seven times over unless they could either find a new escape route or blast their way out of here.

And then Marissa mentioned throwing grenades, and Vri grinned like a madwoman under her helmet.

"I am always ready to throw grenades." She unclipped the grenade belt from under her jacket and watched, admittedly kind of awestruck, as Marissa used a gap in the engine room fire to essentially dance out into the chamber and blast out the light fixture, plunging the room into darkness.

"Nice." Now it was Marissa's turn to knock some sense into Vri, who was quick to prime the remaining grenades on the belt before flinging them into the dark room between wild, panicked blaster fire. It took maybe five seconds for the belt to go off, shaking the entire ship and filling it with a deafening roar, as the main reactor was consumed in a fireball. Even from a safe position around the corner, Vri felt the heat of the flames and heard shrapnel ripping into the chamber walls, and through the bodies of guards.

"...THAT WAS AWESOME!" The fact that she was on a severely damaged repulsor yacht, surrounded by hostile guards, completely slipped Vri's mind as she reveled in the biggest explosion she'd ever created and imagined what the ship's full destruction would look like.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

As the blast of fire engulfed the engine room, Marissa threw herself into the alcove alongside the doorway the pair were fighting from, shielding herself from the heat. The yacht shook, dropping for a moment as the backup generator came online, the place shuddering around them as energy flooded into the engines one by one. Metal shrapnel shot around the room and through the doorway, the chaos was immeasurable. Their job was nearly done,

"Don't get cocky kid, let's get outta here and blow this place! We can celebrate when we're off this wreck" she called out to Vri, ushering her through as she began to make her way at speed back through the slowly sinking yacht, a yacht they were going to send to the planets surface as soon as possible.

The already flashing alarms flickered and welped as she sprinted back through the hallways, reversing the layout in her head to get them back to the landing bay they'd arrived at. Hopefully their speeder was still sitting where they left it. Laying down bolts back and front to keep any enemies at bay, she was running on adrenaline, pushing her muscles to move with the looming possibility of the place sinking with them aboard still lay there. And she was not dying in a place like this,

"On the speeder. We blow it once we're in the air!" she cried, one last thing before they passed through the door to the exit.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Was Marissa old enough to be calling her 'kid'? Despite the fact that they were on a half-dead ship, surrounded by hostile guards and about to crash into the surface of Nar Shadda, Vri still took a second to mull that fact over. She quickly resolved that, if Marissa was old enough to call her a whipper-snapper, she looked fan-farking-tastic for her age.

"Sounds good!" Thankfully, in the crush and chaos of blowing the ship's main power reactor and killing a large chunk of onboard security, everyone got the hint that the pleasure cruise was over. The halls were practically a riot of panicked partygoers and fleeing security officers all scrambling over each other to escape, apparently not caring that the people who were responsible for this attack were running around among them. Vri, for her part, made sure to shoulder-check, trip, sucker-punch, and otherwise slow down anyone they ran past, just to make sure the ship wasn't empty when it went down.

"I can't wait to see-HEY!" Apparently her speeder hadn't gone unnoticed by the the security team, and three terrified looking guards were busy fiddling with the wires on her speeder bike. The fact that she had the ignition key in her back pocket didn't seem to be deterring them.

"FARK!!" She raised her carbine and blew the distracted guards away, one by one, leaving her bike's gutted control panel sparking and flickering. "KRIFF KICKERS! They gutted my baby! I gotta fix this quick, cover me while I try to put the ignition back together."

Without warning, or even really looking, Vri tossed her heavier carbine to Marissa while she went to work twisting the the control panel's wiring back into place.

@Nightfall

 

[Marissa Hesse]

The carbine fell heavy in her arms as Vri's weapon landed in her grasp. She used such weapons seldom, but the firepower was sorely needed right now compared to her blaster pistol. The recently deceased would not be the only opposition they faced here, as from the yachts interior Marissa noted a new set of guards begin to sally forth from the inside to harass the pair.

That, of course, could not be allowed, not when they were so close.

Diving behind her own speeder, she threw herself on its rear door and hunkered down from the hail of blaster shots that came their way. The storm shooting out above her head, it was all too familiar, too close to home. When she'd still been just a lowly scoundrel in the Syndicates employ they'd sent her and Preef to Kessel, in a war that hardly thought of the folks that would lose their lives in the mud on that desolate planet surface. They'd scarcely made it out, the close either had come to death. Their partnership had been sealed there. And even as she took control of the Zaa Fenn and Preef became the idol of the galactic oppressed, somehow that experience hadn't left either of them. But right now, it needed to.

Breathing deep, steadying herself, she threw herself over the speeders hood, and fired. Round after round from the carbine, striking some and suppressing the rest, she fired with a ferocity she didn't know she had, as rounds seared into the flesh of guards and sent them crashing down as they pressed their attack.

She could only hope it was enough. For all her heroics, she was more than ready to slide in the drivers seat and send this place rto kingdom come.

@The Captain

 

[Vri Nama]

Rather than try to stuff the control box back together, Vri decided to spend her time completing the botched hot-wire job the dead guards had left behind. To their credit, and her annoyance, they had gotten pretty close to connecting the battery to the ignition wire, so it didn't take Vri long to get the motor humming and the repulsor grid flashing.

"Yes! We're in business!" By the time she was done, Marissa was nearly done mowing down the next wave of guards that either came to kill them or steal their rides, not that it mattered now. "...damn."

There was something perversely satisfying in watching a sharp-dressed woman unload a blaster rifle into a line of charging goons, but the idea that another line might be coming for them snapped Vri back to reality.

"C'mon, let's get out of here." She grabbed her rifle back, mounted her rumbling swoop cycle, and took off roaring across the Nar Shadda skyline toward the top of a nearby tenement, a relatively safe spot to watch the show. All that was left now was for Marissa to blow the second engine and watch the smoldering ship drop into the undercity.

@Nightfall