715 FNM (23 BBY) Month 1
Gargon
Gargon, Outside a Warehouse
Miri Chour
Click clack click clack, the repeated sounds of my heeled boots echoed down the alleyway as I moved through the rather dark streets, the back sides of many businesses run here on Gargon.
Not exactly the safest place to be but I went to where I was sent. And where I was sent is to a small warehouse in the back of one of the more less reputable hives of scum and villainy on this planet.
Very private affairs, only those with an invite were supposed to know about this place after all. A gentleman's club hidden in the facade of a warehouse. No ordinary criminal enterprise would need or bother with this level of subterfuge. Not unless they were doing something particularly illegal. Something even the mafia heads of this world were not in favor of.
I approached the entrance in disguise. I could spot at least three guards, two in Mandalorian armor and the third in some armor of foreign make. Possibly Ondorian, hard to say. I stepped inside the entrance, out of sight of them. Already I can hear them making several jokes at my expense, jokes about me being a hooker or a stripper hired for the boss man. I pretended not to hear them and rechecked my appearance in a mirror. I took my helmet off and stashed it inside the black cloak I was wearing over my armor. Now, all they could see was the cloak on my head which I admit was a poor disguise, but I had an even less motivated audience. I had a large amount of makeup to try and appear as they expected. The best way to get into a place like this is to look like you belong. Charm, charisma, and a pretty face can get you anywhere. Smiling at my appearance in the mirror, I looked at my sandy pinkish blonde hair, the only part of me that could easily determine my planet of origin, Harswee. I had not been there for a long time.
During one of the civil conflicts after the Clan Wars, my family had been pushed out. As a result I ended up taller than the average Harsweean, one of those weird things that happens with genetics. When your body's genes expect to be dealing with higher gravity but you miss out and grow up with standard gravity instead. It also meant I didn't get the benefits of denser muscles, It was hard work to keep looking good. In fact, I needed to do a little work now. Carefully, I pulled out some lipstick and applied it to an uneven spot.
Letting out a sigh, I stashed the mirror and crossed the distance to the three guards. They were on average about my height and were looking particularly annoyed.
"Hey toots, what are you doing here?" The first guard in the Mandalorian style armor said.
Smiling, I said, "I think you've already discovered that the boss man put a call into my services."
"Told you, Larry", the second guard in red super commando pattern armor called from where he was sitting on a nearby ledge.
The first guard, Larry said, "Yeah yeah yeah. What's the passcode?"
"Passcode?" I said acting dumb, shaking my head in confusion, my long hair catching in the breeze.
"Yeah, the passcode. The one that he probably gave you before he ended the call."
I shook my head and said, "He must have forgotten since I didn't get a passcode."
"Well according to the boss man's rules, unless we get a passcode and you can't get in."
"Strange, can't you just call him and let him know his guest has arrived."
The guard named Larry shook his head saying, "Nope, boss man said no guests unless they have the passcode and not even to bother calling him."
"Hmmm, that's unfortunate." I purred, shaking my head as I reached for something out of view inside my cape to take the helmet off the side of my belt.
"Well I guess I should probably say, I was hoping there would be less casualties." As I said that, I pulled out my helmet and carefully placed it on top of my head. The black and silver markings surrounding my face mask were ancient mando symbols for luck on a job. They were distinctive and rather well known amongst the criminal type.
"Oh fuck, it's the cape!" called the third guard already raising his rifle from his sitting position. He didn't get far though as there was a solid blast of energy from somewhere to my left. I didn't need to look to know what was going on. I heard what I expected, the sound of the guard collapsing. Blaster wound right in the neck, a weak point on Mandalorian armor.
"Shit!" Larry shouted while raising his gun, but I moved a little bit quicker than him. Taking hold of his hand I broke his wrist in a swift motion. I snapped his elbow for a good measure before flipping him to the ground like a toy. The cape that had been hiding my armor fluttered out of my way, revealing the black and silver markings strewn across my super commando style armor. Neat little thing I had picked up a few years before visiting my homeworld. I may not be able to live on Harswee, but I would admit they knew fashion in an impressive way. Before Larry could get himself back up, I brought my booted foot down on his neck to clamp off his air, leaving only enough to give me the answers I needed.
"Fuck fuck fuck!" screamed the last guard struggling with the key to get the door open. Obviously forgetting himself and trying to escape. The moment the door was open, though, a blast struck at the back of his neck. The last guard slumped to the ground.
Raising my hand to my helmet, I said "Good work, keep an eye on the front door and make sure no one comes in after us."
"Roger that sis." came the voice of Shomso, who was providing overwatch with her sniper rifle a few buildings down.
Turning my head down to the last remaining goon I said, "Your boss man's inside, correct?" Taking some pressure off my boots so he could get some air and talk.
"Yeah." he coughed out before saying, "What is this about? He already paid his dues to the Vrell"
"The Vrell have been removed from power in this territory I'm afraid." I said matter of factly as I pulled out a pistol. "The Tutt are now in control, which means, what was the term that scumlord used?" I said looking off to the right where I knew Khovi was already waiting.
"Scumlord said and I quote 'non-volunteer recruitment of working girls'." Khovi said with a chipper voice that she came out of the shadows. Her black and green armor has similar markings to myself. Well, she had limited pieces of armor: chest, helmets, shoulder pads, and boots. She was still too young and small to get anything more so she had to rely on fiber armor and she took advantage of it in her own way as both her and her sister preferred combat skirts to cover their upper thighs and to deflect any glancing shots from causing major damage.
"Yes, a fancy word for slavery. The Tutt have no interest in this market continuing so you need to warn others that this will not be tolerated."
He coughed, letting out a moan of pain before saying, "Why am I the one who has to deliver this message? Isn't the boss more important if he went around saying that? People would listen to him."
Underneath my helmet I smiled as I said, "Your boss is already marked for death and you're just the lucky one of the three idiots on the front door. Now crawl away Larry, otherwise a dislocated elbow and wrist would be the least of your problems.."
Turning to Khovi, I glanced at the shotgun I knew she had pulled off her back.
"Always ready to cause some mayhem." I said with a cheer in my voice as I fastened the pistol back to my hip.
"You know it, Miri! Bastards with operations like these are always the funnest to tear apart."
I smiled at the comment, I may be a bad role model in the universe of role models, but it's always nice to see that we shared a common bond. Bringing down some of the worst organizations for profit was always a family bonding experience for my troop of girls.
I reached to my other side and unhooked the heavy repeater rifle and said, "Well this place isn't going to blow itself up. Let's go deal with these slavers the way they should be dealt with."
Khovi giggled as I walked over to the front door which was still unlocked and being held open by the corpse of the second guard. I kicked it open all the way, finding two more guards crouched and in position, waiting for me. The waiting guards unleashed a spray of blaster fire. I laughed at the harmless violence, my arms taking most of it in stride, tanking the damage without effect. I unleashed a spray violence of my own, their armor taking massive damage, rents and gaping holes appearing the slumped forms of the guards. Their armor was probably cheap knockoffs, made during the False Silver fluster cluck, as my little sister would say.
Their armor only took two or three hits before cracking and once it's cracked, plasma tends to burn through, they fall over dead. As I moved further into the room, Khovi sneaked off to the left. Probably planning to ambush anyone trying to ambush me. It was generally our tactic. I went loud and proud to draw everyone's eyes to me and while they were busy trying to kill me, my girls would kill them from behind. It's a simple tactic that's surprisingly effective. People either just looked down on 15 year olds or were just too distracted by my stage presence to take note of the green and pink monster stalking them from the shadows.
Some goon charged out of a second floor room just above me and tried to aim his blaster down from above. Probably hoping to find some weak point in my armor. But of course it does not go well when you're right in front of a window with a sniper watching. There was a blast and then he tumbled down next to me. The body hit the floor with a loud crack. Many broken somethings. If he had survived the shot he wouldn't survive for long.
And there was a blast of a shotgun. Khovi had found her target for the day. No counter blasts. Khovi pulled off the ambush and killed him. So far so good, a textbook operation.
Moving forward towards the central building hidden within the warehouse, I saw that they had tried to jam the door shut from the inside. Honestly, it was a decent effort, it probably would have been successful on anyone else. Unfortunately for them, we came prepared. Reaching into my fanny pack, I pulled out an explosive and set it for about 10 seconds before running away to a nearby set of cargo containers for cover.
The blast was deafening, but it was exactly as I expected. When I looked around the door was gone and there was screaming from inside. Shaking my head I walked through the door and leveled my heavy repeated blaster at the crowd and yelled "Stop panicking! Get down on the ground!". The crowd immediately started dropping to the floor as they saw what I was holding, big guns tend to do that.
I took in the room with a glance, it looked like a private club or the auction room itself for their illicit gains. Either way, I stepped further into the room and announced, "Thenex of the Vrells, under order of the Tutt your life is forfeit, all property is to be seized. All those in bondage shall be freed. Anyone who wants to join Thenex in the death that awaits can stay, feel free to stay for the main event when the Tutt crime family gets here to clean this shit up. I'm given to understand that the Tutt are unusually merciful and forgiving... No wait, that was White Silver. The Tutt are bastards. So if you want to live, start crawling towards the door one at a time, so I can make sure Thenex can't escape."
There was a murmur and then they began crawling showing their face to me as they moved past. Many of them were Gargon natives, so I did see a few faces that look like they belong from other areas of the sector. After a while I heard a blast from the back of the room and I immediately leveled my gun in that direction expecting someone to have gotten the dirt up to try and take me out.
Instead I heard Khovi's voice on my helmet saying, "Someone tried to sneak out the back. Do the Tutt want him alive or dead?"
Raising my hands to my helmet I said, "They don't want him at all."
"Got it." There was another blast and I turned back to the crowd saying, "And just like that our job's done. You may leave now." I brought the gun up to rest on my shoulder instead of intimidating them. Immediately, the remaining crowd started running past me. In a moment, it was just me, an empty room, and whatever trinkets they left behind. A fair bit of extra cash and valuables were strewn about.
The moment Khovi came in I said, "Search the room for money and anything else you can find."
"Will do big sis." She said whilst getting to work. I took a seat at one of the tables quickly pulling out a radio and tapping a few buttons to signal that the objective was done.
Took about 15 minutes for Khovi to clean the place out, but she did a good job. Everything of value had been rolled up into a sack. Scanning the contents, I figured it would probably help us pay for another month or two of rent. The problem was it would only pay for a month or two.
As that dark thought was starting to come to my mind, Shomso entered wearing her own black and pink Mando armor very similar to Khovi. Although Khovi preferred to use a shotgun, Shomso was carrying a semi-auto sniper rifle. Next to her was the boss man himself, Grel Tutt, leader of the crime family. He was looking over the place with interest as he said, "Good work, good work. I wanted to send someone over here to clear this place out yesterday but I figured I'd use the best to do this job."
Reaching up I pulled off my helmet and put it on the table saying, "The best will do any job as long as we're getting paid."
He chuckled at that before taking a seat across from me. "I've heard that Bresug Gerr really screwed you over with that whole revolt of his."
To say I've been screwed over was an understatement. I had landed on Gargon to do some jobs for the local crime lords with my sisters a few months back. I expected to only be here for maybe 2 weeks then my ship had been seized and impounded by Gerr's little revolt and before it was over apparently someone had stolen it and flown off with the ship. Its disappearance pissed me off to no end.
Managed to track down a video camera of the docking bay where my ship had been impounded and saw some Mandalorian in blue and red armor breaking into it. Obviously one of mercenaries that routed near the end of the conflict.
Really, I wouldn't have that much of a problem of them stealing my ship if I didn't have so much medical equipment on board. I worked hard to make sure my sick sister's life was good and some idiot just took away one of the things that made sure my little sister is going to make it to adulthood… but I'll track that bitch down some other day. Right now I needed the money to get my sister the medical aid she needed.
Which is why when he brought up how much I've been screwed I said, "Yeah any word on finding me a ship or maybe a couple more jobs so I could get the money? I need to get off this rock and get my sister somewhere better for her condition."
He shook his head saying, "Afraid not, if anything jobs are about to start drying up."
"What do you mean?" I asked noting how Khovi and Shomso were still standing by the doorway into the club watching for anyone trying to enter, but no doubt listening to the conversation.
"It's simple, the top families are muscling out all the little families. We're not going to let this rampant level of criminality continue. I'm going to try and go legit and to go legit we need to get rid of all of this." he said indicating the warehouse. "So there might be a bit of a boost in jobs right now but it's probably going to dry up within a month and when that happens..."
"When that happens I'm screwed." I said matter of factly, shaking my head before asking, "There's got to be something you can do for me, Grel. I can't not be making the money for my sister if I don't we're all going to be in a bad shape."
Tutt nodded his head before rubbing his neck, "I'm sorry Miri, fact of the matter is you're just a bounty hunter to the Tutt . You're not one of us, you're just very good at your job and we like to use you but just because we like to use you doesn't mean we're going to look out for you."
I sighed, knowing that's always the truth. You weren't part of someone's clan, you weren't going to be cared for by anyone else's clan. That's kind of how I got in this situation to begin with. Shomso and Khovi were not of my clan, they weren't really my sisters, I adopted them. They were orphans like me and my little sister Sanninni. I had a soft spot for people in the same situation as me.
All four of us were a clan now but that's just four. We can only look out for each other, easy work like bounty hunting, moving from system to system, looking for minor criminals for a little payday, to keep our ship going and our lives on track.
Without our ship, things were not going our way. Work was about to dry up here and we would normally move on, except now we were trapped.
"Hey, maybe join the Silver Rangers." Tutt suggested, "Or Gargon's Rangers or whatever those Silver copycats are calling themselves. I heard they pay well."
I sighed and shook my head, "I already checked out their rates. It might help if I moonlight as a bounty hunter still but they are looking for full-time employment. That's not going to be good enough to keep all four of us going."
"Hmm," Tutt hummed back in his chair, sitting there and said "exploit yourself, I might be able to suggest a few of the better places, you could probably make a little bit of money yourself."
I shook my head at that, "Nope. Same as posing as a stripper or a courtesan, I am not those things."
"If you need money I think you'll be anything." He pointed out and I had to make a sound of annoyance as he was not exactly wrong. I was not going to give up any chance to try and keep my family together.
Getting up from his chair he said, "I wouldn't try larceny though. Nor any major unsanctioned crime jobs, really. Not under our new management. Besides trying out for that idol job or something I don't really know what else you can do."
"What the hell is an idol?" I asked, tilting my head, annoyed at the bad news.
Like stopped and looked at me before shrugging, "Beats me. Apparently you need to know how to sing and dance or something, good choreography too. There's posters all over the place near Mandal Hypernautics owned property. I don't know, check it out yourself. Maybe there's something there for you."
"Hmm, maybe there is." I said with a nod, "Thanks, Grel. If you do find any more work you know how to find me. I'm stuck here for now. " I said with a shrug.
He nodded before saying, "Good luck Miri. Don't worry things will turn around. Warriors like you always land on your feet." With that he turned and walked towards the door. Several of his goons followed him out the backstage areas, where most likely the hostages were being held. Probably completely confused by what had happened and worried out of their mind but that really wasn't my concern.
Standing up I waved to the girls and said, "Let's get going." and started walking. They quickly fell in behind me as we walked out of the warehouse.
"Are we heading back to the apartment?" Khovi asked while holding Shomso's hand so they wouldn't lose each other in the large crowd as we entered on the main streets of Gorgon.
"Not yet." I said turning towards Mandal Hypernautics Tower, "Got to check something out first."
With that I led the way slowly and steadily through the busy streets, the darkness of the place blotting out most of the Sun. Forcing us to rely on the neon lights to understand what buildings were actually for.
In time we made our way to Mandal Hypernautics and there it was. A poster, a strange little thing written in Mando'a about how they were looking for singers to be an idol or spokesperson for the company. The description caught my interest, but what really raised my eyebrows were the printed pay estimations.
The raid we had just been on, had given us enough money to last a few weeks and that's usually how long it would take us to find another job of similar scale. The pay estimations for one person per month was about the same… three of us working together would be triple what we had just made. The money alone was really tempting.
"Look at this, girls." I said, "How would you girls like to try a different profession for a while, one that might be a little bit more economical in the long run and less dangerous?"
Khovi looks annoyed as she said, "No danger sounds boring. Come on, the thrill of a fight is ten times better than no thrill at all."
Shomso looked thoughtful before saying, "Actually I wouldn't mind trying something that's less dangerous. I always worry about you two going into the buildings that we're breaking into. What will I tell Sanninni the time that you don't come back out? If we could do something safer that pays well, I think that'd be better for all of us."
"Aw," Khovi said, "you don't need to worry about me. I'll always come back to you Shomso." She said with a smile before saying, "But I'll change my vote. Yeah let's do this idol thing. Sounds like it could be cool I guess."
I raised an eyebrow at that but not a problem really. Since they both said yes, holding the poster in my hand I turned towards the Mandal Hypernautics Tower. "Well then we're going to have to do a little training to prepare for our audition, let's get ready to conquer this idol business."