Ask The One-Eyed Man

[Casany Praxor]

In A Maze of Containers
Casany Praxor
Zad Ruzed
​

“Zaia! Draugr reading you. We were sitting ducks outside your container so shifted position and got split up.”

Where are you?

Hunkered down, the warrior inside her asked with one knee on the ground, blaster raised, taking aim.

“I’m in cover. Shooter has me pinned in a corner of containers to your container’s west. Zad went to flank shooter’s position wherever it is. Gone quiet. Shots were coming high from towers six o’clock, nine o’clock. They shift positions quickly.”

Which means running, tiring, dying tired, on your knees, ram'ser.

“What’s your status? Is that guy the pirate?”

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Zaia Krodas]

As sparks flew from the panel and the door shuddered, Zaia shifted herself closer, trying to get the wires to connect again. So the thing wasn’t really dead! Meanwhile, she listened to this part of Sage’s story with much more interest. Scuttlebutt, scuttlefish, scallion, scullery and cutlery, the Mandalorian didn’t really know what all that meant, but she wanted to see what he had to do with Endyr.

Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like much. Just like that panel, it had been about to work but it turned out to be nothing instead. It wasn’t his fault, she supposed, and part of her was relieved that Sage hadn’t been in cahoots with Endyr and the other captain. She didn’t really want to shoot him, and the less he knew the better.

“Oh, I’m glad.” Zaia tried the wires one more time, and in a pleasant surprise, the door popped open. She wouldn’t head out right away, though. Cas’s voice sounded in her helmet ust then, briefing her on her position. At the mention of Zad, Zaia tensed up.

“I just got the door open,” she answered, then briefly glanced at Sage. She had no idea if he would follow her out, but it didn’t really matter. “He’s not the pirate. But he did mention Endyr working with a Captain Val’kaanen.” Hearing no blaster fire, Zaia daringly stuck her head out to look around for a moment before she went back into the container to speak to Casany again.

“I’m going after Zad.” She spoke into her comms, looking at Sage, before heading out with both of her blasters at her side. If uninterrupted, she would make her way east of the container— hopefully he would be somewhere around there.

@Die Shize

 

[Crux]

Crux growled in his throat. Today was roadblock after roadblock, and yet again he was stuck— she was right about it being a stalemate. What was different about this time compared to when he was with Amer, however, was where she was aiming. This was somehow worse.

However, given that the Badger apparently had stopped contacting him for some reason, Crux did in fact have all day.

“Yup.” That didn’t mean that he wanted to be here all day, though. “Well, if you tell me what you know ‘bout the Badger, I’ll consider givin’ you the case.” Maybe it wasn’t the best deal that he could make and she likely wouldn’t agree, but Crux wasn’t about to lose his only physical asset on this job just yet. Words were wind, but a metal case he could trade in or sell at worst. He tried adding a little more.

“He won’t know it came from you.” She meant nothing to him, but if anything Crux never went back on a deal.

@Die Shize

 

[Sag'etare Baracco]

Spoiler: Music OOC

The door opened. Usually this would be the moment when the passengers would promptly and politely exit the container that served as a makeshift spaceship in a fashionable line into the bright outside to live out their miserable lives.

Instead, Sage stood there brandishing not a bag or backpack but a violin, listening to a woman Mandalorian talk to her friends on the other line.

As the Mandalorian and the non-Mandalorian pirate exchanged a glance, Sage had no idea if he would follow her out, but it didn’t really matter.

Pretty privateer returns, delivers me, I’m dead meat.

He doubted either the Daggers or the Badger, or anyone from pirates to privateers and Mandalorians to Imperials, would give two sacks of shits if the Captain of the Endless Song was suddenly silenced.

He’s not the pirate, she said. It was the kind of line a pirate like this guy wanted to hear from law enforcement more often than not. Pirate. Captain. Val’kaanen. Mandalorian. Endyr Ratheon.

Sage sighed, a sliver of artificial sunlight shining onto the silver gold coin relaxed in his palm as he gazed at it in thought. Perhaps, in the end, I’m just a trinket to be traded by the likes of them.

It would explain why badgers, daggers, assassins, privateers and Mandalorians wanted this pirate all of a sudden. Their mistake.

Free at last, if floating naked on an ocean of containers alien to him, Sage stepped outside beside the Mandalorian. She didn’t look like she was interested in him which would make his escape from all this nonsense less complicated or offensive.

“I’m going after Zad.”

“This is the way.”

Sage made to wave.

-BLAM!-

The pirate didn’t know what the hell a zad was but he knew the sound of a blaster bolt missing his skull.

He whipped around in time to spy ‘pirate’ written on the container with a bolt burned into the exclamation mark.

“Kark.”

At that, Sage ran, and he didn't look back to catch whether it was in the same direction as Mandalorians, Deucalians or Rangers, but was that a loth-kitten in the distance?

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Kit Zelkar]

Spoiler: Music IC - Kit's Earpiece

Offer given, offer bounced back. Options presented. This idiot seemed to think that he held the cards behind that dark visor of his, but he probably knew as much about this business as she did; because maybe, in the end, she was just a woman who pretended to know more than she did.

Maybe.

“Badger,” Kit repeated, holding a steady gaze as much as steady aim. Eyes narrowed as smoke drifted away in a haze from the vape tucked at a corner of her lip as she listened to this punk's proposition given to her in reverse.

However, words were wind in this universe, about as useless as nipples on a breastplate—but they meant much and more as much as little and less when it came to stalemates—more or less.

Tell him about the Badger and he’ll give me the case? Piece of cake.

“Omnivorous nocturnal animal and mammal,” Kit said simply. “Broad feet, long claws, coat of black, gold, brown, white. Relations to ferrets, minks, otters, wolverines.”

She tilted her head, her lips as good as narrowing like her eyes in a slight smile designed to tease.

“Weasels,” she emphasized her speech, though maybe that word would not be taken by the wind and reach its intended target.

“Vicious beasts, badgers, but I can be one too, or so they say.”

She blew smoke, breathing easy.

“Now give me the case.”

@Sicadorito (@Crux)

 

[Zaia Krodas]

Nearly as soon as she turned off her mic, Zaia heard the unmistakable sound of a blaster bolt whizzing past behind her and into the container she and Sage had just come out from. She quickly ducked behind the corner of a building, pressing her back against the wall to ensure she had cover. Then she peeked out from behind, her blasters with her, but she saw no assassin anywhere.

Only a running pirate who was still open to being shot at. Cursing inwardly, Zaia pulled back, waiting until she could hear his steps getting closer.

As soon as Sage was within arm’s reach, Zaia grabbed him by the collar and pulled him over so that he too was behind the corner of the building.

“What are you doing?” she demanded when she let him go, staring incredulously at his face. “Do you want to get killed?” It would have been a clear shot for the assassin, running down the open street like that. However, now that the blaster fire had returned, it would complicate things.

“Zad? Where’s your location? Do you copy?”

@Die Shize

 

[Crux]

When she repeated the word, Crux almost thought that this woman was going to say something useful for once. He was sorely disappointed when she launched into a description of the animal instead as if he didn’t know what those were. He caught that weasel jab at the end, but he wasn’t going to let that get to him.

“You ain’t no badger.” He scoffed when she finished. Maybe he could see her as the annoying little animal, but definitely not the one that he was looking for.

“Now give me the case.”

“No.” They’d been through this already, and it was clear that neither side would budge anytime soon.

That was when the floor began to shake beneath their feet. An earthquake? Some kind of explosion? The latter seemed more likely. It lasted only an instant, but it was enough time to mess up both of their aims and Crux’s shot went wide. He ducked down behind a desk to avoid any retaliating shots, his eyes on the elevator. He had to get back there and find a different floor… this had to be the wrong one.

He couldn’t help wondering why the Badger had sent him here, though. Had he known this woman would be here? And what if it was a trap? He didn’t like to get played like that.

@Die Shize

 

[Sag'etare Baracco]

Spoiler: Music OOC

Nearly as soon as Sage had begun to run had someone grabbed him by the high collar of his tan jacket. Out from behind the container, in to the corner of the building or behind it or whatever. Rather, more like out of the frying pan and into the fire?

“Running,” Sage answered the demanded question in as incredulous a tone as was given to him. It wasn’t as if he intended to run a marathon. He was just trying to simply keep distance between him and the assassin.

“No,” he answered the next question of whether he wanted to get killed. “That’s precisely why I was heading for that corner of containers over there with the buildings and the exit out of this street and sector?”

Sage asked as much as stated as he gestured into the distance, but by the time he did it his ‘companion’ was already on the comlink or whatever the heck existed in her Mandalorian helmet.

One thing everybody needed to keep in mind with this setting is it was rather like a maze; a maze of containers spreading every which way. Images appropriated for yours truly when it came to Sage painting a picture of their adventure with his admittedly inferior fingers.

Clearly the shooter was struggling to gain a target amid the cover of containers that functioned as walls. All that said, however, said shooter was probably just as likely luring said targets into a zone for her to encroach? At least that's the pirate's theory.

Like roaches to a bath of a pesticide. Only this pirate didn’t feel like dying today or tonight with this bunch of dumdums. Bereft of weapons, though, with only a violin on his person, Captain Sag’etare Baracco decided to hang onto it and this Mandalorian for the moment. Distractions.

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Kit Zelkar]

Spoiler: Music IC - Kit's Earpiece (Recurring)

Kit decided to deny this guy the expressive shrug as to his statement that she was no badger. She never claimed to be a badger or the Badger, however, and had simply stated that some said she could be one.

Why might that be? A question that deserved an answer for another time, apparently. Yet Kit wasn’t the idiot. She didn’t actually expect this helmeted moron to crayon his compliance and hand over that case to the beats of her earpiece.

She wanted the case, he wanted the Badger, he asked, she answered, but he was too damn stubborn to hand it over. Too bad. It wouldn’t be her waste to waste his face and heritage at his pharynx and his privates quicker than he could count a pair of tits.

Yet before Kit could squeeze the triggers with twin fingers of don’t-kriff-with-me the floor violently shifted. An earthquake? Some kind of explosion? The latter seemed more likely. It lasted only an instant, but it was enough time to mess up both of their aims and Kit’s shots went wide.

What the heck a desk was doing in a hallway was anyone’s best guess short of a deaf Weequay. Maybe said desk was in an office off to the side but whatever Kit didn’t wait to discover it as she ducked behind the wall of an office off to the side.

Elevator in the hallway behind her, she hugged the wall with her back, doorway to her left, ready to turn leftward with a blaster if the occasion called for it. If Idiot tried to head down the hallway to the lift? There go his tits.

“Okay, so don’t hand it over,” Kit corrected. “Slide it over instead and you get to keep your head.”

@Sicadorito (Crux)

 

[Zad Ruzed]

Spoiler: Music OOC

“Zad? Where’s your location? Do you copy?”

“Yeap.”

He had no cigarette ‘tween his teeth, whether bent or unlit, so sucked on industrial air instead. Warehouses. Factories. There was a difference within terminology but right now he would settle for a bar on Nar Shaddaa and hold the faa.

“Chasin’ the sniper chasin’ us. Should be somewhere southwest of your container with that pirate di’kut.”

Zad didn’t always di’kut but, having met Zaia Krodas way back when, he generally did when in the presence of a Mandalorian.

“Shooter’s been shootin' with intent to kill as much as distract from advancin' to their position I reckon,” he shrugged in silence. “Makes sense.”

Zaia might hear the echo of an old man trying to smoke.

“Towers on all four corners. Main building in the center. Buildings at the flanks. Shooter likes to dance—”

-BLAM!-

“—Between buildings but currently I’m heading for the center and don’t @ me.”

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Zaia Krodas]

Considering that she had maybe just saved his life, Zaia bristled a little at his equally incredulous response.

“Well then! If you can handle yourself, go right ahead.” But before she could push him back into the open or do anything of a similar nature, Zad’s voice sounded through her helmet. Any concern she might have had for the pirate instantly went out the window then, and instead she focused her full attention on her friend. Another shot rang out. They had to move.

“Okay. I’ll try to keep you covered.” If the shooter was firing in order to stop them from getting close, it probably meant that they were pretty close already. She glanced at Sage one more time before activating her jetpack, propelling her upwards until she landed on top of a small stack of containers. It wasn’t the highest one, but it gave her a better vantage point than if she were on the ground.

Then she spotted a figure running from one of the four towers that Zad mentioned. Whoever it was, they were carrying a sniper rifle, so she knew it couldn’t be Zad or Casany. To get their attention, Zaia fired a shot in their direction before she switched on her jetpack again to get behind a taller stack.

She might not have a sniper rifle, but if this shooter wanted to play hide and seek, Zaia could oblige while Zad got closer.

@Die Shize

 

[Crux]

Crux knew as soon as he’d ducked behind the desk that this had been a bad choice. The room was nothing more than a small office with only one way in or out, and said entrance was now being covered by this woman who was all too eager to shoot his balls off.

Since she was outside, Crux decided that there would be no harm in standing up instead of crouching behind the desk like an idiot. However, he wouldn’t slide that case over like she asked. It was unbefitting of a woman to be this demanding. Whatever had happened to class?

“You let me go on with my business and you won’t have a bounty on yours,” Crux countered. Even if he didn’t know this woman’s name, he knew her face all too well from being forced to stare at it for so long. And he knew he would get out of here. He’d been in situations like this before, and she would live to regret putting him in this position.

But he knew that this wouldn’t get anywhere. Neither of them were willing to compromise about this case, so maybe they could find another route. Crux tried again.

“How ‘bout this. You help me find the Badger, I give you the case. Then we both get what we want, and we can go home happy.” Then maybe he would be able to get out of this blasted room.

@Die Shize

 

[Sag'etare Baracco]

Spoiler: Music OOC (Recurring)

This sniper certainly had the height advantage but was just as disadvantaged trying to aim at their targets throughout all these containers. That surely explained why they kept moving; as much to get a better position as to pick between their targets.

There were four targets, weren’t there? Me. Mando. Deucalala. Ranger. Wait. Sage looked right, looked left. What the heck happened to the purple black Mandalorian with the signet of a hippopotamus?

That was a great question, one in a million, such as who this assassin’s actual target was. Was it even the pirate? Contract killers, assuming that’s what this sniper was to begin with, tended to shoot at Deucalians, Mandalorians and Sector Rangers as much as pirates on a number of occasions.

“Ohhh!” Sage expressed with O-shaped lips toward a container in the distance. “Next best thing for a pirate without weapons and I—"

-FWOOM!-

A bolt pinged off a nearby wall right as Zaia ignited her jetpack and took the sky.

“Ret'urcye mhi, vornskr."

Saged waved and began to run away, but it remained to be determined whether he entered that other container or wherever the other Mandalorian was in this long strange song of utter chaos.

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Casany Praxor]

Spoiler: Music OOC

“GAR SERIM, VOD!”

Casany called across the comm the instant she spotted her sister tearing toward the ceiling that was high enough for a sky in a city under a dome. That instance of reflection was enough of a reminder for her that there was no escape for the predator or her prey. Especially with two Mandalorians on the case.

Having been sourcing for the right moment given what she had since experienced with this sniper, Zaia offered it just then. Jetpacks were risky business when you were faced with someone who could aim at it for a most brilliant explosion but now the shooter had two targets in motion.

Flying up on one side, Casany took to another, igniting her jetpack in an attempt to flank their target while Zad would sandwich them from below. As for the pirate? Probably useless, nowhere in sight at a glance as Cas advanced, and neither was that hippopotamus, Bone Katana.

Yet the red gold Mandalorian’s attention was on a tower at that moment as Zaia shot at the shooter. Cas spotted the figure running, evading and exchanging the shots amid a catwalk that ran from that tower to another.

“Eso bal jerkad!”

To flank and attack, she would let the vornskr follow behind the figure while Anvil headed for the other tower. If the sniper caught on and tried to move to the center then the Ranger would be waiting for them, surely.

Just then, the figure sprung into the air like the Mandalorians had, only no jetpack. Pirusti, pirusti. Jetboots burned as they pushed the figure toward the second tower with speed.

@Sicadorito (@Zaia Krodas)

 

[Kit Zelkar]

Spoiler: Music IC - Kit's Earpiece

Two offices. One hallway. Two combatants. All work, no play. That’s all it was today for Kit Zelkar as far as she had ventured to this city from the stars.

Sure, she didn’t have much choice in the matter for her work, given her circumstances, but she hated it when she had to go through idiots like him to take care of business. Delays. But maybe he’d prove to be a piece of cake in the end.

At the threat for getting a bounty on her head, Kit just sighed behind the doorway of her office. It wasn’t hers, belonged to some guy named Mye Desc according to the sign on it, but it also functioned as a gateway for her opponent’s death if he came her way without giving her the case.

“Wouldn’t be the first time, friend,” she all but muttered back. Pirates, privateers, bounty hunters—even the latter weren’t immune to credit signs on their heads, with or without the helmet.

Then came a proposition that made a bit more sense.

“Let me think.”

Give her a second.

What was that explosion, anyway?

“Okay. You give me the case, I help you find the Badger.”

That was the way, right?

“And you don’t die.”

In the quiet of the abandoned factory, Kit heard a -ding!- just then. She tried to spy down her side but would have to peek to see whoever or whatever was coming out of that elevator.

@Sicadorito (@Crux)