[b]Phindar Moon,
'Syndicat' Controlled Cantina, backroom[/b]

"Who does that woman think she is? Muscling in on our turf." The large, burly human said, looking at his compatriots, they were the overseers of the Syndicat which had been in power in the Phindar System for a long time but in the last year, slowly and surely assets had been acquired on one of Phindar's habitable moons by a outsider who was now effectively in control of the moon. The big bosses on Phindar had no problem with it, the moon had been a low source of income or wealth but for the overseers gathered here it had been everything and now it had slipped through their fingers and they wanted it back.

A female with a scar on her upper lip shrugged, "What can we do about it, besides... ah that is why you gathered us here Onno, you want us to vote on killing her and take back what is ours, don't you?"

At this the others perked up with interest, thinking it over. "Did the bosses back home agree to that?" One asked cautiously.

The burly man, Onno grunted and gritted his teeth, "They effectively told me it is our mess to deal with, if we can't we are to head to Phindar... and start on the bottom of the ladder." He growled, clearly not wanting to take that route.

The others agreed, "We worked hard for this moon! The protection rackets and income were ours!"

"And we let it slip through our fingers because we were stupid and greedy!" Came the snarling reply from the woman with the scar. "We did not pay attention and let our business interests slip into this newcomer's hands like we were idiots and now we are bitching and moaning about wanting it all back."

"Exactly!" The big guy growled, "So I want to do something about, off the bitch and take it all back. But we need to work together on this! Are you all with me?" He looked around, his hand on the holster of his blaster, one by one the others said their ayes with determination, eager to return to their former positions and wealth. After the woman agreed Onno turned to the last member, who had been closest to the door and who was looking oddly at the passage leading back to the cantina. "Oy Dro, what is your say on this."

Dro turned around frowning and gestured to the passage with his head, "Say... when did the music of the cantina up front stopped?"

Onno was about to remark why he was paying more attention to some music than this discussion when he stopped and got a frown of his own, the music wasn't meant to stop and now that Dro had mentioned, there was no sound of patrons talking or the clinking of glasses. He pulled out his blaster, "Something ain't right." The others pulled out their blasters as well and looked to Onno who went for the passage and the door, gesturing silently for the others to follow him as he pushed open the door and went into the common room of the cantina and stopped in his tracks.

The cantina had been a Syndicat holdout and they had taken their bodyguards with them to sit in front and act the part of patrons while keeping everyone out as their employers talked in privacy in the backroom. All of them were dead but the disturbing part was, that they were all sitting at tables or slumped over the bar as if none of them had any time to react to whoever or whatever killed them, no weapons were drawn. Some had their throats visibly slit and other had a neat hole at the side or back of their head, execution style shots and yet none had reacted to this?

The woman was beside him, a blaster in one hand and a knife in the other, looking at her own dead bodyguards, "Who could have done this..." She muttered her eyes wide. "We didn't hear a thing and our best people lie died here..." She turned around, opening her mouth to ask Onno something and widened her eyes.

Seeing this he snapped around, raising his blaster expecting to see the thing that had killed their people instead he saw his fellow overseers... all of them were dead and one the floor. He took a shocked step back, "What in the fragging blazes is going on here! Show yourself bastard!"

There was a rustle of wind and Onno froze, feeling something sharp and metallic against his throat, a gasp from the woman let him know she was experiencing something similar. He widened his eyes then as a shadow became solid right in front of his eyes, there was nothing there at first and now he was looking at a gray skinned alien of some kind, with rows of sharp teeth and it seemed to be grinning at him. He tightened his grip on the blaster still in his hand and in response the blade at his throat was pressed deeper and he felt something wet over his skin, realizing it was his blood he got the message and dropped his blaster, hearing two more thuds he figured his trapped companion had been forced to discard her weapons too.

The alien studied him for a moment and then spoke, it's accent was heavy and he got a feeling she was feminine but couldn't be sure. "I am first part of message... your people were killed, part of real message, message you will deliver to Phindar. My mistress acquired this moon, by your rules, there are no actions taken against her. She will take no action against Syndicat of Phindar, understand? Yes?"

Onno growled, so they were supposed to head hoem as whipped dogs and be a messenger. "Eat poodoo alien filth, the Syndicat will not stand for this!"

The alien looked at him as if disappointed with his decision and then looked behind Onno, "You share this?"

It was quiet for a moment and then the reply made Onno's eyes widen. "No... I will be your messenger." The alien looked back into Onno's eyes and he knew that his life was forfeit, he opened his mouth to rage but the alien's hand was a blur as she raised a blaster and fired a shot between his eyes at point blank range and that was the last thing he witnessed.

_________________________________________________________

[b]Some time later at Lena's Phindar Moon Outpost...[/b]

The Night Owl landed at one of pads outside the outpost, though it appeared more like a palace, two figures waiting at the base of the platform, watching impassively as eleven figures walked out of the vessel, the eleven Noghri making their way with a quick but silent pace, stopping in front of the two figures, one of them Lena as she looked at the Noghri leader with a smile. "Your mission was a success?"

Ko'Chul nodded, "Yes, overseers are dead but one who returns to Phindar to carry word if Syndicat tries to dispute your claim to the moon."

Lena turned to her companion, the female bothan slicer. "Irys, once again I am more than happy with your services since you accepted to join my ranks. You managed to find out were they all would be holed up so we could deal with them efficiently, I am in your debt once more."

The bothan grinned, "Does that mean you will let me buy those bottles of Corellian Brandy?" Lena snorted but nodded, "Excellent, I am happy to serve still Lena." Smirking the bothan walked away, no doubt eager to spend some of Lena's credits to get the brandy for her own personal use.

She watched her go and turned back, not really surprised that only Ko'Chul was still there, the other Noghri had somehow been absorbed into the night without her notice as usual, together the two of them walked towards the outpost, after a moment Ko'Chul produced something and handed it to Lena. "Offer of peace and trust of messenger, overseer named Onno had this on him." Lena took it and studied it, it appeared to be a official message from a corporation affiliated with a nearby neutral government body requesting the production and manufacture of a series of droids for bodyguard purposes. Apparently they had been unaware the factory had changed ownership. Lena pondered for a moment, this was indeed a good peace offering seeing the amount of credits this government was willing to pay, it would be easy to inform them that the factory was under new management and that she was happy to accept the order.

"You have done well, now for more pressing matters." Lena said clasping her hands together behind her back. "I need to contact Jacoiba I feel the need to... do something. Perhaps we need to discuss what our next move should be against the jedi and our efforts into locating them." She smiled and turned to her oldest friend and ally. "I think you will be instrumental with that, you have mastered the art of stealth, so much that I have trouble sensing you too, we can put that to use against our jedi opponents. How do you feel about hunting force users Ko'Chul, jedi?"

The Noghri was silent for a moment, pondering and thinking of a response before she looked at Lena. "A challenge, difficult, but good challenge and if commanded to by you, I will do as I am tasked, no matter the difficulty." The Noghri replied with confidence and a smile of fanged teeth.

"Good, I shall keep that in mind if a target can be found for you to practice your skills on as the ultimate test of your accumulated training as a assassin." Lena replied, "But yes will need to contact Jacoiba to discuss this further, go to your chambers and rest old friend." She said with a smile and watched the Noghri bow and make her departure of the sith. Lena decided to stay outside for a time, enjoying the fresh air of this world, the sound of marching footsteps broke her reverie as she turned and watched, her former apprentice now turned Darth, Idoht leading a platoon of Morgukai through the grounds. From the look of it the Quarren force user had been engaging them in rather strenuous training exercises but still the Morgukai held their heads high.

She observed them for a while and then saw a another platoon led by one of her other force disciples, Azai. It was clear they were to engage each other into a mock battle and it was clear after a few moments which platoon was the one better led. Azai was ordering her Morgukai to just charge in blindly, eager to engage Idoht and his Morgukai into melee. The Quarren was smarter, more used to issuing commands and leading flesh. He had his Morgukai, while it was not their strong point, dig in first and simply shoot Azai's charging Morgukai from a distance and then when those that survived the stun blasts, were closing in charged into Azai's diminished forces and gave her and hers a sound defeat. Idoht seeming quite pleased with himself after he had managed to knock Azai out with a well placed kick to her solar plexus.

She nodded, perhaps Idoh would make a fine commander of her forces, so far it seemed only he had the aptitude for it. She would keep a eye on his progress.