Close calls.

[Soniee Ordo]

*Soniee Ordo's story begins here*

Lessu, capital of Ryloth and home of the Twi'lek people's. Well, it used to be until the Empire took over. Now it seemed more like one giant prison than anything else. With Imperial flags and storm troopers patrolling the streets. Unfortunately this was now the fate of many planets across the galaxy. 

Soniee stood at the bottom of the loading ramp to her ship. Her blue eyes scanned the hangar before mom landing on an Imperial flag hanging a short distance away. She didn't like being this close to this much of the Empire, but this is where her job had taken her. A load of nysillin from Felucia to Ryloth. The job paid well enough, pay that unfortunately was going into parts for her ship.

The ship itself was almost unloaded and credits had already been transferred. Which meant hanging out around here wasn't going to get her off planet any faster. Soniee ran a quick mental checklist, blaster? Check. Lightsaber hidden out of sight? Check. She didn't need to check the armorweave shirt she wore under her tshirt, she could feel it plain as day. With checklist complete, she grabbed a duffle bag to hold what parts she needed and ventured out into the city itself. 

[Farren Sefu]

It wasn’t long before an older Twi’lek male in medical dress adorned with the Imperial crest approached the ship. He was yellow in color, with brown striping across his lekku. However, almost the entire bottom half of his left lekku was missing, and the scars ran up the length of what remained. “Hallo dere!” He said in a slurred voice, that sounded like it belonged to a child rather than a grown man. “M’ name is Tobi Cur. I am dah ‘ed ameestrer of the metrical facility here in Leszu. We are so tankful that you wur able to get the seelum here saffly. If you could hollow me dis way, I’ll show you where to unpode the shipment.” The Twi’lek gestured down the runway to a waiting RGC-16 speeder equipped with a hauling platform behind it. He held his arms towards it with a big lopsided grin.

[Soniee Ordo]

Soniee turned at the sound of the voice. There, coming over to great her, was an older male Twi'lek. He was heavily scarred and missing part of his lekku. No doubt a wound received during the Clone Wars, or the Empires occupation. Either way he was the one receiving the shipment she brought in.

She gave the Tobi a small nod. "Thank you, but it wasn't much of a problem getting it here." Soniee followed after him towards the large hauler sitting at the end of the runway. "The deck hands have most of the shipment unloaded now. I can have them load it into the speeder quickly enough."

[Farren Sefu]

Administrator Cur clapped as the boxes of nysillin were loaded onto his transport and mag-locked into place. “This seelum will hulp many injured pope-el here. Too ‘ad it doozent work on buzz droid scars, eh?” He managed a laugh as he raised a hand lazily in the direction of his damaged lekku. “Peas, comb wif me to dah hespitle. I know that yer compeny ‘as already been paid for dis deleevery, but I’d like to personally gift you a tip once we arrive. Peas. Sit wiff me.”

He got in the driver seat and motioned for Soniee to join him. The smile never faded from his face. Whatever injured people were waiting at the hospital, he seemed genuinely glad and eager to help them.

[Soniee Ordo]

Soniee's eyes quickly went to Tobi's lekku when he mentioned a buzz droid. She averted her gaze away as not to stare to long. "Yes, they've already contacted me and said the payment was received."

When Tobi asked her to go to the hospital with him to receive payment, she hesitated. Staying on this planet any longer than she had to put her at risk of being discovered. On the other hand, she was here as a lagitament trader. "Alright." She climbed into the speeder next to Tobi. Something about how much he was smiling seemed..off to her. She blamed it on being slightly paranoid. Then again, she did have her reasons to be.

[Farren Sefu]

Tobi was glad when Soniee agreed and chuckled as she sat beside him. He keyed the controls and the speeder lurched to life, elevating itself and its payload a couple of feet of the ground before he hit the accelerator and they left the landing port en route for the hospital.


Neither of them noticed the Gotal following behind on a speeder bike.

[Soniee Ordo]

Soniee tried to settle in some for the ride, but found it slightly difficult. All around her was the presence of the Empire. From patrolling troops and walkers, to flags and posters. She found it all disheartening, especially compared to the last time she was here. Two years ago, she came to Ryloth with her old master to deliver relief supplies shortly after the Republic took the planet back from the Separatists. Back then there had been people cheering from the streets at their arrival. Now they barely wanted to look the Imperial forces in the eye.

She averted her gaze from a passing patrol as an officer looked her way. Without looking at Tobi, she spoke almost cautiously. "So..the Empire definitely likes to make their presence known here in Lessu. Is it like this everywhere?"

[Farren Sefu]

Tobi nodded his head as they passed by a trio of scout troopers on 74-Z speeder bikes on patrol. “Ees da new way of ‘hings, it lukes like. Me, doe, I don’t mind show much. You know, a group of clones saved me from a keeler Jedi last ‘ear. Da Jedi was rune’ing at me wiff his lifesaver on, and da clones shot him in da back to save me. I’m not mush goo’ in a fight no mo’ since my in-hurry, which clones save me from, too. Day said the Jedi were twying to take over. Da Umpire can be a bit roof aroun’ da edges, but I wouldn’t ‘ave mah job wiffout dem.” Tobi was still smiling and gently bobbing his head.

Before long, they had arrived at the hospital, and all manner of vehicles were coming in and out; emergency vehicles ferrying injured through the ground floor, and even a modified police patrol gunship acting as an airlift for critical cases. He pulled up to a side door of a two story building, connected to the main hospital by a short hallway, and got out of the speeder. A protocol droid with both the Imperial and hospital logos got in the drivers seat in his place and waited patiently for Soniee to exit and the Twi’lek orderlies that had begun to unload the supplies to finish before driving the speeder off to the employee parking lot. Tobi was walking towards the door and gesturing for Soniee to follow. A sign on the side said “Administrative Office” written in both Basic and Twi’leki.

[Soniee Ordo]

Soniee did her best not to show any real emotion when Tobi mentioned that a Jedi tried to attack him. She was sure he must be mistaken...but she also wasn't there to see it. For the most part she wasn't going to voice her strong opinions against the Empire, at least not here.

She stepped out of the speeder once they arrived at their destination. A quick glance told her that this place was very busy indeed. If that was the case, then maybe she should try and get more contracts to deliver nysillin to Ryloth. A steady supply of credits would be a good thing for a change. Bringing her mind to the present, Soniee followed Tobi towards the administrative building.

[Farren Sefu]

Tobi opened the door for Soniee, then stepped in and let the door close behind him, which sealed itself with a soft hiss and a beep. He logged into something on his computer and keyed a few buttons. A moment later, there was a clanging, clicking sound coming from behind a wall, out of which a drawer opened up. Tobi scooped out the contents and went to place them into Soniee’s hand. Upon looking, she would find that it was a small pile of currency chips, equaling 300 credits. He smiled as he handed her the tip. “Das just a small hoken of our graftitude, Miss. You and your shippling company are welcome on Ryboth any time,” he said with a small bow. A faint popping sound at the door made him glance in that direction, but upon seeing nothing wrong, he looked back towards Soniee. “Peas, let me walk you bock to the exit. My dwoid will drive you back to your hip.”

Tobi walked back to the door, but the motion sensor didn’t open automatically. “Odd....” he muttered to himself. He keyed the override switch next to it, and was met with a grinding sound as the mechanism tried to open the door, but to no avail. Tobi eyed the door suspiciously and walked back to his desk, keying the intercom. “Dis is Ameestrer Tobi Cur. I rekest that maintence be sent to mah office peas. The door will hot open,” he said. A female voice began to respond.

“We hear you, Administrator. I’ll send som-“ a burst of static and the speech stopped.

“What in da...” Tobi covered his ears against the feedback and looked at Soniee with a look of total confusion. He opened his mouth to speak again when the street facing window suddenly shattered inwards in a shower of glass and metal. Tobi braced himself against the debris and barely had time to look up before he was hit with a stun blast and crumbled into his desk chair. When the dust settled, Soniee would see the Gotal that had followed them standing there in the office, his JSP-14 pistol aimed right at her.

“Soniee Ordo,” he began. “How nice to see you again.”

[Soniee Ordo]

Soniee gave a nod of thanks to Tobi as he held the door open for her. Her eyes scanned the office. Before looking down at what Tobi deposited in her hand. To her surprise it was a decent sum of credits. Sheblooked up him and shook her head. "I..can't except this much." She barely no the noise from the door as Tobi started to lead her towards the door.

As they approach the door, Soniee felt a sharp prickling on the force. Something was wrong and she wasn't just being paranoid. She reached out with the force as Tobi tried getting the door to open, which had suspiciously seemed to be jammed shut. Without warning, one of the windows blew inwards. Soniee shielded herself the best she could from the debris. The sound of a blaster shot brought her gaze to the window.

There, standing amongst the debris in the office was someone she hadn't seen in quite some time. The mere fact that he was here and knew who she was, made her stomach drop some. She gather herself and tried not to let her surprise show. "Dorn, you old goat. So nice to see...you're still doing....well." Soniee's eyes darted to Tobi, to her relief he was still alive, but unconscious. She had her hands raised some to seem less threatening. "What are you doing all the way out here in Imperial space? I doubt it was to look me up for a social call."

As Soniee spoke, she scanned the room for anything and everything that could give her an advantage. Then she spotted it, a fore alarm just sitting there on the wall. Now to trigger it without using the force. She'd have to make it quick, dive over the desk and hit it, then us the desk as cover. "Don't tell me. You're still upset about that spice? I mean that was what? Two years ago? That's a long time to hold a grudge, don't you think?"

[Farren Sefu]

Dorn Bishto scowled at her and waved his gun a bit without actually taking it off her. “Yeah, two years about covers it. And I’ve spent every minute of it trying to keep my head down and recover the losses. Black Sun doesn’t take kindly to their business ventures being interfered with....especially when it’s a Jedi that does the interfering.” Even with his bleatish accent, there’s was no doubt that he put extra emphasis on the word “Jedi,” and that he was less than happy.

As he spoke, on the far side of the room, another door opened and a blue Twi’lek male in coveralls had walked in just in time to hear them talking. No doubt he was the man from maintenance that had been ordered. “Jedi? Wha-“ he began, looking between the pair and seeing the mess of the office. His eyes settled on the unconscious body of Administrator Cur, and he opened his mouth to yell out, but a blaster bolt to the chest dropped him before he could speak. He was dead before he hit the floor. However, it was not Bishto that fired the shot, as his weapon was still trained on Soniee and still set to stun.

“I told you to lock all the doors into the room first, Bishto. You could have blown the whole thing. Security is already scrambling thanks to your stunt with the window,” came a robotic male voice from Bishto’s belt. With his free hand, Bishto lifted the communicator and replied back.

“Thank you, Rat Hook, but I have things under control. Matter of fact, I’m bringing out an old friend. Just keep those guards off us.” Bishto spoke with a certain annoyance in his voice. “Now, then. As you can see, I didn’t come alone. Which means that alarm over there won’t do you much good. My trigger happy friend out there would love to put a bolt through your head after what you did to us, so play nice and you may just get out of here alive. Now move.”

Bishto flicked his gun towards the window, and stepped aside to allow room for Soniee to pass. When she stepped through, she’d see the Twi’leks from earlier that were unloading the sillum were laying around the road, with blaster burns on their clothes. The platform the crates were loaded on was now hooked to the back of a heavy speeder bike, with two other bikes flanking it. A female human was sitting on one of the side bikes firing on the security guards that were starting to run out of the hospital. “Let’s go! They’ve already called for Imperial reinforcements!”

[Soniee Ordo]

"And it seems they're good at holding a grudge as well." Soniee could sense the hate rolling off him in waves. She could scarcely guess what Dorn had gone through since she destroyed all that spice. Although she knew the Black Sun wasn't exa a forgiving group.

Before she could get another word out, another door opened from across the room and a blue skinned Twi'lek stepped in. She almost believed this was the distraction she was looking for. What happened next caught her off guard. A blaster bolt, not fired from Dorn, hit the Twi'lek square in the chest and killed him. Soniee tensed as she felt the Twi'lek's life slip away in the force. She should of known Dorn wasn't working alone.

Her gaze went to the alarm momentarily as Dorn mentioned that it wouldn't do any good. She was in more trouble than she thought, maybe even worse if the Imperials showed up. Her eyes fell on Dorn for a moment, then she slowed stepped forward and out through the broken window.

The situation outside wasn't any better. The entire loading crew was dead and the sillum had been loaded onto a different speeder. Things were looking worse by the minute as security guards were starting to engage the small group of thieves. A group of thieves she recognized and not in the pleasent way. She definitely recognized the human woman, since she cut off her arm at the elbow. Soniee was shoved onto the platform the crates were loaded onto. This day was not going how she expected it to.

[Farren Sefu]

“Any time now, Bishto!” The woman called out. She took out a guard that exited the main hospital building with a dart launcher that was built into the wrist of her cybernetic arm, then her eyes fell on Soniee and she glared, aiming her arm at her and rotating the next dart into the chamber. Bishto slapped her arm down.

“No, Sena. We need her alive. Imagine the bounty we’d get for turning in a Jedi!” Bishto said, mounting his own bike. The droid known as Rat Hook had jumped off his rooftop perch, landing directly on the sillum speeder using a jet system on his back to control and slow his fall. He was clearly a model of security or combat droid, but not one that Soniee had ever seen before, perhaps modified from a more simple base model. The closest match would be the IG-RM enforcer droid, but it wasn’t quite the type.

“Yeah, we’d never have to work again!” He said in his mechanical voice. “But we need to get out of here so we can spend it!”

“Whatever. I’m not worried about doing more jobs. I’m not in it entirely for the money anymore, you know that. I only care about making life hard for -“, Sena began, but a sudden laser impact a few feet in front of her made her stop short, and cover her face from the resulting shower of rubble. “Them,” she finished, looking up to the see the pair of Imperial LAAT/le’s flying in, each fully loaded with a dozen stormtroopers. Sena retracted her dart launcher back into her wrist, and then used both hands to open fire with her blaster on the ships, aiming for the pilots, but not having much luck. “Rat, get ‘em!” She floored the accelerator on her bike and took off, with Bishto right behind her.

Rat Hook grunted a robotic reply, then opened up a small flap at the top of his back, and out slipped two rocket tubes. The rockets fired and arched towards each patrol transport. One of them was able to swerve in time and avoid the missile, but the other wasn’t so lucky. A slight hesitation caused the missile to impact the back end of the ship, resulting in a downward spiral and crashing into the ground behind them. Two troopers were able to escape the wreck and open fire on foot, but their efforts were in vain as Rat Hook joined the others, taking the sillum and Soniee along with him. The remaining patrol transport was right behind them, trying to keep up, with the ship’s gunner and any trooper brave enough to lean out the sides laying out a constant spray of fire. Thus, the chase began, as the thieves raced away to get to the landing zone and back to their ship.


-Thread End-