Justice in the Dark

[Apillis]

Terra solidification of planetary systems was something every intergalactic government sought to strengthen most. It only made sense given that were the largest congregation of sentients lived, thus by focusing there attention of ruling planets more than space--it made it easier for them to consolidate their power. But there were those other elements outside the government, pirates--oraganized crime syndicates who uderstood that in the space lanes of the great void they could consolidate their own power and move unnoticed by the intergalactic governaces that held greatest sway upon the planets in which they control.

The Exchange is one such large organized crime syndicate that understood well the leading method in being able to move unnoticed was by controlling the space lanes; even within the very lanes within the borders of the intergalactic governments. Within Republic space there is a shadowport run primarily by the Exchange that operated a smuggling ring spreading illegal spice to streets of those very intergalactic planetary goverments to prey upon the weak-willed and vulnerable. The methods in which the Exchange secured the particular space lanes they would use within Republic space was by destabilizing them. Undermining their laws, but also striking civilian transports and shipping vessels.

With the war with Sith reaching its boiling point, leading the Republic Navy to focus less on these destabilized space lanes. It has given the Exchange more freedom to operate more overtly with less resistance on the large scale to which the Republic Navy used to be able provide against them. Further leading to there only being a few outside of criminal elements to learn that one of the shadowports within Republic space called, Nemes, an underworld shadowport built into a massive asteroid within an asteroid field. With the Republic Navy and law enforcement otherwise stretched thin it thus leads to elements outside of the Republic military and law enforcement to resist the growing tide of Exchange activity infesting the space lanes within the Republic...

*****

Within her ship the Nao Vittoria, Averia laid in bed staring up at the cold metal ceiling of her room. The ship on autopilot as it is on a direct course for Nemes, all of her investigations of trailing and hunting Exchange smugglers have at last point her there. But blatantly waltzing into an Exchange shadowport and beating the living snot out of any member of the Exchange she crosses would be stupid... while perhaps enjoyable on some level, it would lead her nowhere. What she would have to do is be what in one sense she is, a traveling spacer.

Averia a known smuggler under several different names, gaining access to the shadowport was the easy part. Infiltrating deeper into the Exhcange's operations of the shadowport would prove to be the trick. But if there is one thing she has learned as a spacer, especially getting work as a smuggler or even just an ordinary mechanic, eavesdropping can be better than even more cautionary and subtle methods. The ports of shadowports themselves often have spacers gathering together generally as a mere social arena. A common place for such discourse are cantinas, but Averia wanted to avoid such a place, especially at an Exchange run shadowport. She wanted to focus on the smuggling ring alone, and her best bet would be the docking ports and warehouses.

Given her training since she was a little girl, she learned well how to make herself little more than background. Blending her presence within the static atmosphere of a shadowports scenery is something she often preferred doing.

The shadowport itself is the size of a small city, and operates much like with its hustle and bustle. It had been carved into the immense asteroid of the built lining a seldom traveled space lane, largely because of the asteroid field that the shadowport lies within. The shadowport described by those who know of it is much like a slice of Nar Shaddaa minus the Hutts influence. Making it difficult to say which is better, a shadowport run by purely by the Exchange or one run purely by the Hutts. If there is any improvement to be discovered it is infinitesmal at best.

Traveling these underworld societies has been something that Averia has spent much of her life doing. With her ship having finally landed at Nemes' docks under one of her several aliases she has used for smuggling in the past, she was able to con the Exhcange port authorities to leave her be for the most part. What to do from there is was still up to her. Her presence blended to the background of her surroundings, she begun to walk the shadowport focusing her perceptions into the greater mystery of things as she walked the port to attempt catch a glimpse--if only even a small glimpse of something or anything that could provide her even a minute lead to follow.

[Dire Wolf]

For the most part, laws are in place for a reason. Granted, there a few that are instituted simply because Senator Joe Schmo thinks that he knows what's best for the greater galactic populace. Others that are around because one company paid a different senator to push it through. Yet, most are in place to protect the community from objects and activities that are legitimately dangerous, and have destroyed people and families. Drug laws, for one.

Yet, for reasons that completely baffle Tahlia, people insist on breaking such laws. Particularly those that involve the use and sale of drugs, spice in particular. Had it not been for the raging war in the outer rim, the Republic could have taken policed cartels such as the exchange and the hutts without the use of the Jedi. The Sith were more of a threat to the galactic infrastructure than a few spice peddlers, though, so instead of sending soldiers to them... they threw them at the sith.

That's were Tali came in.

As a shadow, her primary function was combating the dark side by any means necessary. Doing so generally required long missions that involved burying oneself deep within criminal organizations or anywhere that held the Dark Side artifact or user for that matter. In this case, it was the bodyguard of a man who sat at one of the bigger branches of an infamous smuggling ring. She had been embedding herself deeper and deeper into their organization for months, and she had recently been afforded an opportunity to meet the man behind it all. The one that her quarry was paid to guard oh so vehemently. It was at one of the Exchange's larger shadow port, "Nemes."

And there she sat, at one of the larger bars in the asteroid, simply waiting for her quarry to show. As she did so, she absent mindedly spun a narrow straw through the liquid, causing the alcoholic substance to spin along with it. She had been waiting awhile, and while the Force told her that her quarry was indeed somewhere on the rock... it was nowhere near her.