The spoils of fate

[kozeph]

Xue squeezed himself through the crowd, finally making it inside the run down cantina. He stooped at the door frame and gave his sorroundings one good look before standing around. This planet almost reminded the gruff looking knight of the "feel" of the smugglers moon. Metellos had so many people it was hard for Xue to sense something through the force, everything was full of life and stress, despair and bitterness yet there was also joy to be found. Metellos was just the right place for Xue Aodh to be, it fit his look.

Originally Xue was only going to make a refueling stop in the planet and continue to Illum, he had business in the frozen planet, mainly he wanted to find and retrieve a crystal so he could build another lightsaber. Yet before leaving Coruscant he recieved a transmission from the temple asking if he could go and assisst a fellow Jedi, in brigging to justice the leader of a slaving ring. This master Norkos, from what Xue could guess was a none-human from the sound of his name, had been on this case for a couple of days. From the report Xue was given, Norkos had been closing each of these slavers dens, one at a time and this was the last one...

The pirate looking Jedi knight, dressed in a long leather coat walked inside the bar, which was not as crowded as he originally expected. The blond human began scanning around the stablishment for his fellow Jedi brother.

"Oh, boy there's a lot of aliens around" Xue thought giving himself a wary smile, he placed his hands on his hip. The only visible weapon on Xue was a blaster pistol holstered to the right part of his belt. The Jedi knight lightsaber on the other hand was in the wrist holder below the Jedi long and dark coat.

Using the force, Xue streched out his feelings and began to lightly probe every patron in the bar and finally stopped when he found his fellow Jedi. The human knight was not expecting Norkos to be something as exotic as a Nelvaanian, he had only seen pictures of them and well he knew that a couple of Nelvaanian's where part of the order but he didn't really ever counted on being paired up with one.

Xue approached the Nelvaanian with open arms and the smile one would expect of someone welcoming family. Xue was rather good at not being very Jedi like, he was specially good at not looking like one.

"Brother! how are you!" he said only after he was five steps away from the Nelvaanian. Xue was acting unnusually friendly today, mainly because he didn't want to give out to the patrons that they where Jedi, so he would just go with his rutine of an old smuggler seeing an old friend. He leaned closer to the Nelvaanian and whispered "Xue Aodh, you asked for support?"

He leaned back out and immidiatly saw a free table, he approached the table and sat, waiting for the Nelvaanian to come closer.

"Fill me in" he said giving the Nelvaanian a smile, before weaving at a waitress for some Juma Juice.

[somedude]

A stray thought wandered through the mind of Norkos, weaving and twisting lazily like a stray thread in the wind: Metellos is a rich world.

The wealth of the planet, the dank, depressing garbage freighter of the Core, was not in credits, or in minerals, or in weapons. The wealth of the place the Republic called Metellos was in human suffering. The smell of it was everywhere, infecting the air and the water and what buildings there were in the decaying slums; no matter where Norkos turned, he could not escape it. He could not ignore the smell of the pathetic citizenry, wallowing in the waste produced by their own bodies. He could not ignore the putrid odour that stuck to him like a skin. And he certainly could not ignore when he detected a whiff of civilization, however small.

The large knight drew his robe tighter around his large body, attempting to vainly defend against the rotting spectre of humanity that infected the cantina, as he peered out of the shadows to try and identify the source of the new scent. There were some that had not yet become totally infected by the stench of decay; this was a cantina, after all, and was prone to visitors. Here: a bounty hunter; Transhodan, unfortunate stereotype, on-planet for about a month now. There: a spice junkie; Nikto, without a fix for two weeks, about to vomit all over the floor (The Nikto in question started running towards someone behind Norkos; the Jedi quickly relocated). Here, a prostitute; Zeltron, another unfortunate stereotype. How some beings could seek carnal pleasures on a planet as filthy as this one was beyond the scope of Norkos’ understanding.

Ah, there: a Jedi. A very peculiar-looking Jedi, at that. Were it not for the ripples his movements caused in the Force, he might have been confused with a smuggler, or a pirate. Was this who he Was? Or was this an act, to avoid arousing the suspicion of their prey? Norkos did not know. For his part, he wasn’t worried. Metellos was a mere darda’s throw from Coruscant, and it wasn’t uncommon for Jedi to come to this disgusting place to try and do noble, Jedi-like things. A two-meter-tall wolf in a brown robe, carrying a painted shield? That was a little stranger, but many generations of misery and gang warfare had long ago taught the denizens of this world to not question the unusual.

”Brother! how are you! Xue Aodh, you asked for support?”

Norkos’ eyes narrowed. The human was loud. Boisterous. This might be a more difficult mission than planned. Still, he had no other options, and he was running out of time. The great wolf-man nodded his shaggy head in the affirmative. He needed much help. The wild Jedi took a seat, resting his treasured sheild carefully to the side, ready to fill his new partner in. He pulled a datapad out from within his robe. The device was still strange, foreign, mysterious, but it worked. Dark claws tapped at it and pulled up a picture of a large human, a mile wide if he was an inch, with a thick black beard, cigar, and an extremely conspicuous robotic eye implant.

”This. Rix Vanos. Chieftain of slave hunters.” Norkos spat out the unfamiliar Basic words as best he was able. It was all he could do to communicate. He held up one digit. ”One day. Then, Tatooine. New slaves.” Norkos tapped at the small, glowing box again and pulled up an image of a large house, by Metellian standards. A large, clean house. ”Village of Vanos. Many warriors. No way in, only front.” The datapad disappeared back into Norkos’ robe. ”Need help.”

[kozeph]

Xue leaned close and began watching the images that Norkos showed him in the datapad. The Nelvaanian spoke in a broken basic but the human knight had no real trouble understanding him. The first image was that of who Xue guessed to be the ring leader, Norkos soon confirmed that. "A real piece of work aint he?" the Jedi said almost only to himself, not really expecting an anwser from the Nelvaanian.

The mention that he could make a new shipment made the Human Jedi frown and raise his eyebrow "Not for long". Then finally it was the image of a large house, something uncommon in this parts of Metellos. One entrace and tons of guards usually meant that the whole event was going to beging with aggressive negotiations.

"When do we move?" Xue said finally leaning back and relaxing in the old chair and worn out chair. This was among the worst Cantinas Xue had been in, and he had been in many through out the years. Xue then began looking at the shield resting next to Norkos, it was unusual for a Jedi to carry something so big, but he wouldn't let his curiosity take the best of him so he remained quiet for the moment.

"And do you have an entry plan or are we just gonna charge through the main gate" He asked casually hoping that the whole situation wouldn't blow up into a full battle... that was going to be annoying.

[somedude]

Norkos shook his shaggy head. “Need plan.” He placed a hand on his chest. “Stealth.” He gestured at his datapad. “Not help. Need others. You.”

The wild Jedi cast his mind back across this mission. The world of Metellos was all but overrun with slavers; they infected the planet like vermin. Norkos was the exterminator, the Force's vengeance upon those who would disrupt the natural order, defender of the defenceless. His natural talents had made it an easy job; the slavers had been unprepared for any kind of meaningful resistance. Security holes everywhere. Norkos was Istenni, called Nelvaanian by the Republic, a hunter; the darkness made him invisible, and armed with that invisibility, he would strike as though he were one of the great warrior-spirits themselves. The villainous slavers had been struck down as grass to a flame.

But there was no honour in this butchery. Norkos could strike only the underlings, with barely a handful of slaves in their compounds. The goal was intelligence; the intelligence Norkos now possessed that would lead him to their leader: the target. That man was a blight on the goodness of the Universe, effector of suffering amongst all species. Let justice be done on him, though it drag down the pillars of the sky.

But Rix Vanos was not the same man his underlings were. Norkos had seen to it that no word of his one-wolf crusade had spread, but even so the Vanos compound was a fortress. Many guards, all of them armed, all of them dangerous. Not mercenaries; too willing to surrender to save their own skins. All zealots, followers of an ideal of sin and misery. Very dangerous. No obvious way in. So Norkos had called for help.

“Attack not good.” Norkos grumbled. “Many warriors. No other plan. Help?” This Jedi, this Aodh, he smelled capable. He would have a plan.

[kozeph]

Xue sat back, he looked comstarble with this kind of place. This Jedi knight actually looked like he fitted in this place and world.

The human knight tapped his fingers on the table as the Nelvaanian Jedi explained the situation to the rogue looking Xue. Well at least Norkos wasn't one of the rash lot, it was probably a good idea that the Nelvaanian called for help.

"Hmm".

Xue kept tapping his fingers against the table, considering what ever options he could think off, there was no chance of infiltrating the gang it could take weeks or even months to get even close to Rix Vanos... They needed a less time consuming way to get close to him.

"Maybe",Xue said, the tapping on the table with his finger "Maybe we can get close enough to him, that his guards can be talked into surrendiring".

"Does Rix Vanos know your face?".

It was a long shot this idea, foolish even but it may just worked. The plan gearing up in Xue's head, involved him passing as a bounty hunter, the bounty being Norkos. If the Nelvaanian had been butting in Rix's dealings, then Xue was almost sure that Rix had a grudge with Norkos, maybe just maybe Rix was the kind of guy that liked to personally deal with capture troublesome people. If he was, then Xue would come in acting as a bounty hunter, the Neelvanian as a "prisioner" and when the moment was right Norkos would be released, then the rest was just to get Rix as quickly as possible... the guards wouldn't have the guts to shoot two Jedi holding their boss captive.