mickilennial
Alisdragon911
Rockette
Lemons
DocTachyon
Captain Uni
vietmyke
Hutt Territory, Level 3030
Shakka came stumbling out of another winding alleyway back into the crowded streets of 3030. Taking a frantic look about she moved back into the crowd, one hand resting down upon where her DH-23 sat holstered to her hip the press of the metal and it’s heavy weight almost comforting in the moment. She scanned the horizon looking around for any eyes watching her in the distance, unnerved and put on edge. She was back at least in Gorr’s Territory which should've meant relative safety, not that she loved the Hutt or the Hutt held any love for her but the Pure Hands as crazy as they were wouldn't come searching for her in here. But it still didn't mean that somebody else would try and jump her, if not for the datapad then her just looking like an easy mark. A young girl injured and looking frantic, some easy credits in that.
She continued following the crowd down the street getting bumped along by the current of people heading every which way towards their respective destinations. Shakka liked crowds, how in a strange way they seemed to bring people together. As soon as you stepped into a
mass of people you became a little cog in an impressively large and complex machine. It didn't matter who you were: bounty hunter, smuggler, Empire’s most wanted , death stick dealer. You all became a single cohesive identity for only a moment. There was a safety in crowds as long as you knew how not to stand out.
After some time she parted with the crowds following down a less busy side street. She stopped in front of a small shop tucked away in a corner. The outside seemed to be in disarray surrounded by what appeared to be droid parts of various models: half the chassis of a GNK power droid, the limp humanoid body of a TC series and even what seemed to be a deactive B1 Battle Droid shoved to one side upon the crate. On the lone square window set into the frame of the shop scrawled in sloppy Aurebesh, Ta’rin’s Repair and Mercantile. A rotating camera swiveled by the entrance focused upon Shakka’s face for a moment before continuing to rotate about seemingly uninterested in the Twi’lek. Shakka looked about making sure that she wasn't being followed before heading inside the building.
A melodic chime ran through the shop as Shakka entered followed almost immediately by a voice from somewhere deeper in. The inside of Ta’rin’s shop was a cramped affair with shelves reaching the ceiling filled with gears, circuit boards and other long forgotten pieces of technology, the floor in no better shape with haphazardly placed boxes scattered about as if a thermal detonator had gone off only moments before. A single light fixture provided the only small cone of light by the counter at the back of the shop, the rest of the space being cast in different degrees of shadow ever increasing as you moved further towards the door. A heater having malfunctioned long ago and never being fixed runs almost constantly making the entire shop about ten degrees warmer than the already unbearable heat of the undercity.
Shakka made her way through this labyrinth of shelves and spare parts as she moved to the counter. The sound of rummaging and moving feet came closer from somewhere deeper in the building until finally a door shutter open from behind the counter. From this threshold stepped out a large insectoid creature almost 2 meters in height standing upon a pair of long legs that looked so thin that a stiff breeze could crack them. Two pairs of large compound eyes dominated the creature’s face and pair of long antennae sat behind them twitching as he moved feeling the radio waves in the air. His chitinous carapace showed the wear and tear of the year's cracked and healed in some places and having its own share of scares. Long dexterous fingers twiddled about with one another almost constantly as he stepped up to the counter to see who his customer was.
“Shakka Rar, is that you little one? And what brings you to Ta’rin’s little corner of the Undercity today?” The large creature spoke as he peered over the edge of the counter down at Shakka who looked less surprised at his appearance then more annoyed about the time it was taking. Ta’rin was a Verpine, the insectoid race from the Roche asteroid field masters of many forms of technology and creators of some of the most dangerous firearms in the Galaxy. Ta’rin himself was one of the best technologically minded individuals in all of 3030 if not on the entirety of Coruscant. They say there is no droid that Ta’rin can’t fix and no security system that he can’t break. Usually he remains isolated in his little shop working on his own personal projects. but on the rare occasion his skills are needed the gangs will hire him out from a reasonable price. It was on one such job that Shakka and Ta’rin met and after the pair survived almost being killed together became reasonable enough friends. Life and death situations were funny like that.
“Well as you can probably see, I got into a little scrap.” Shakka explained gesturing to the her arm before continuing. “A deal went bad and I got ambushed by a bunch of Pures. I was wondering if I could lay low here for a bit while I patch myself up and reassess my situation.” She pleaded as she looked up at Ta’rin with the best young and innocent child eyes she could muster. The Verpine titled his head to one side almost like a dog as he considered his options before he spoke.
“Shakka Rar is friend of Ta’rin. Shakka saved Ta’rin’s life once and Ta’rin can only try and fulfill his debt. You may stay here for as long as you need and Ta’rin will make sure nobody will find you. Ta’rin has medical supplies in refresher in the back.” The Verpine spoke and if they weren't separated by the counter, and if her arm wasn't still killing her should would've wrapped her arms around the big old insectoid softy. But still she had another favor to ask the Verpine. She didn't just come here to hide away, she needed the Verpine’s technical expertise.
“That’s great Ta’rin! Buttt you say I also have another favor that I need to ask you.” The Twi’lek explained as she reached into her jacket pocket to retrieve the datapad still soaked in the Duro’s blood. She put it upon the desk and Ta’rin long dexterous fingers reached out for it. “You see I need to find out what’s on that datapad, I almost got killed over it and before I make my next move I would like to know what I’m dealing with here. Problem is security on this little guy is real tight. But that shouldn't be a problem for you my genius friend would it?” Shakka asked though she already knew the answer. For all of Ta’rin genius and knowhow with things that Shaka couldn't even begin to comprehend he was still as easy to play as a fiddle. Present him with an intellectual challenge and his own pride would never let him refuse.
“Ta’rin will look into it. But while Ta’rin does you should care to your injury.” The Verpine explained as he gestured to the door. Shakka nodded her thanks before moving around the counter and through the door that Ta’rin had entered through earlier. The shop's backroom was a little bit more organized with the dominant space being taken up by a large operating table upon which a protocol droid lay half-assembled. Probably the Verpine’s latest project. He rebuilt droids from parts he recovered in scrap heaps and from junk traders, usually rewriting their programming for more specialty purposes like infiltration, hacking, assassination. He did them for fun more than anything else but these speciality droids were worth large sums of credits to the right people. Moving past the operating table she entered the refresher. Small even for her it most of been a tight fight for the towering Verpine but one couldn't really complain about space in 3030 you dealt with what you had.
Opening the small cabinet/mirror combination on the wall she produced a small series of medical supplies. As she began to clean the wound, she hummed a small tune to herself. A memory of her past that seemed to be a lifetime distant. When her surroundings were green and brown instead of her grey and black, a time before Geonosis, before the Clone Wars, before the Empire. When things were simpler.
“Mooooom! Shakka fell again!” A small green figure called out to Fee’nra as he ran past her and made his way around the corner of the farmhouse probably to go find his father. She sighed as she looked outward and saw a small blue figure approaching her in the distance. Rising to her feet she walked with a gentle grace to close the distance. Vyso and Shakka most have been playing too rough again and like normal one of them had to get hurt. It was usually Shakka of course, her youngest child always trying to keep up with Vyso her elder by five years. The little Twi'lek girl approached her now, clothes covered in mud and holding her right arm, eyes red with tears. Fee’nra knelt down as she approached her taking the little girl into her arms and lifting her easily into the air. An earthen mixture of her green skin and her child taking after her father’s blue skin.
“Now what happened this time Shakk'arar?” Fee’nra asked her voice gently and sing songy as she looked into the little girl’s eyes. It had a pretty obvious answer, her arm had a fairly decent scrap on it probably was running and lost her balance. But it was better if Shakka told her, help get it out of her system and calm her down a bit. The girl drawn in air through her nose small hands wrapped around her mother’s neck as the pair moved back down the small dirt road back to their house.
“I was... I was chasing after Vyso, because he called me stupid. But he ran away too fast, so I had to try and catch up to him and.. and I tripped on a hole in the ground and I feel. And now my arm really hurts!” The girl explained to her mother trying to hold back another bout of tears as she pointed to her arm. Fee’nra shook her head as she continued down the path. Sounded like a relatively normal occurrence, though she did make a mental note to talk to Vyso about making fun of his sister after dinner. Shakka had always been an emotional child and it was very easy to provoke her and Vyso had endless fun with it. Gentle teasing of course but he still needed to know that his job was to look after Shakka not goade her into getting more hurt.
When they reached the steps to the house, Fee’nra set Shakka down as she moved into the house to go grab the small medical kit. It was still out on the table after Ilarra had cut himself with the cutting torch earlier. That stoopa Twi'lek’s accident prone genes would be the end of them all some day. Packing the supplies back up into the small case, she made a small detour into the kitchen before heading outside. In one hand she had the medical kit and in the other hand she held a small plump muja fruit, fresh from the bush that they had picked earlier. She tossed the fruit over to Shakka who caught it before greedily biting into it. Now preoccupied Fee’nra went off to work cleaning the wound and preparing to patch it up. As she did she began to sing a small song that her own father had used to sing back on Ryloth.
“My brave little soldier marches off to war....”
Shakka sighed as she finished treating the blaster wound, the humming dying away and the imaginary taste of muja fruit upon her lips. It was then that she heard a commotion coming from the front of the shop. Looking around her put her jacket back on and took her blaster from the counter and put it in her hands. Crouching forward she moved to the door peering through the crack between she looked inside to see what was going on. Her breath was caught somewhere in her chest as she saw two Pures standing in front of Ta’rin. It was near suicidal for them to come this far into Hutt territory. One of them was a large male with his hair cut in a sharp military cut, dark skin and strong deep green eyes. His companion was a female with a shaved head and a body covered in tattoos, the male had a blaster pistol out in one hand and the female held what seemed to be a shock stick waiting for the opportunity to strike. Ta’rin on the other hand seemed as calm as ever. Pressing her ear against the door, Shakka struggled to listen to the words coming out.
“Now listen here you karking bug face. I’m not going to ask you nicely one more time, have you seen a Twi’lek girl around her, blue skin about maybe yeah high and probably injured?” Military cut asked his voice sounding less threatening and more annoyed.
“Ta’rin, tell you what Ta’rin tell you first five times. Nobody has come into Ta’rin’s humble shop today except for you two brutes. Trust Ta’rin he remembers all faces coming in and out.” The Verpine explained without missing a beat. Shakka was surprised, she always figured Ta’rin wouldn't be able to keep his cool in a situation like this but he seemed to be doing just fine.
“While I think your lying and I don’t like it when aliens lie to me, you sniveling piece of poodoo.” Military cut explained getting angerer as he raised his blaster pistol at Ta’rin. Shakka wanted to run out and help but the smarter coward inside of her told her to say put and see how the situation resolved itself. Shakka watched as out of the Pures perspective Ta’rin pressed a button underneath his desk. Almost immediately there was a mechanical groan as spare parts shifted behind the Verpine and on the shelf two large automatic turrets came to life and trained on the two intruders.
“Ta’rin suggest that you leave know. Ta’rin has much work he needs to get done and Ta’rin very powerful friends would not like it if that work came in late.” The Verpine spoke and if his face could grin it would be at the moment as the two Pures looked at each other as the tide had suddenly turned and not in their favor.
“Come on let’s go. Bug isn't worth it and besides Daxar is waiting for us to check in.” Tattoo girl spoke putting a hand on military cut who looked at Ta’rin then towards the exit, before sighing and holstering his blaster and stomping out of the shop with tattoo girl in tow. After waiting a couple minutes to make sure they didn't come back, Shakka stepped through the door and back into the front of the shop. Ta’rin looking at her nodded and gestured for her to come over.
“You make some interesting friends Shakka.” The verpine spoke in a tone that sounded almost amused as he fiddled around with the datapad that he had been given earlier. Shakka sighed as she slid into place next to him looking at the data pad.
“Yeah, you can say that again Ta’rin. All part of the karking job I guess. So made any progress with the datapad yet?” She asked her associate even though it was obvious he had because he was scanning through the data seemingly intrigued by the whole thing.
“Of course Ta’rin did. Security measures were basic compared to Ta’rin skill. A measly 42-7 Sullustan Cipher. A hatchling could've broken into this. But the contents inside, those are most interesting. If Ta’rin can ask who did you get this from?” The technician asked as he fished around before finding a large cable which he attached to the datapad and as it did a large display stirred to life showing a continuous string of 18 digit number sequences falling to the ground.
“Nobody important.... but Ta’rin what is this, was I just getting paid and almost killed to deliver numbers?” Shakka asked as she observed the numbers and Ta’rin made a clicking sound with his mandibles almost sounding like a tsk tsk. As he froze the display and pointed at one of the number lines with his long fingers.
“Much more complicated than that little one. These sequences are not just random numbers. These are Imperial ship credentials and high level ones at that. Using these any smuggler or other less than legal owner could have free reign of the entire galaxy without having to worry about being stopped at checkpoints or even having their ship searched. It would even allow them to get on and off Coruscant with a relative ease Ta’rin has not seen since before the Clone Wars. Very valuable these are. No wonder the Pures are looking for it. But that still doesn't answer the question of how Shakka retrieved them.” The Verpine asked as he tilted his head at Shakka. And almost on cue a call came in on her comlink. Looking down Shakka recognized the frequency almost immediately it was Inanjoma probably having just got the news about the ambush and subsequent failure of the deal. Shakka raised a finger up to Ta’rin requesting silence as she accepted the call. Speaking in Ryl she announced as calmly as possible. Ready to the face the storm head on.
<<You’ve reached Shakk'arar courier extraordinaire. How may I help you?>>
Shakka came stumbling out of another winding alleyway back into the crowded streets of 3030. Taking a frantic look about she moved back into the crowd, one hand resting down upon where her DH-23 sat holstered to her hip the press of the metal and it’s heavy weight almost comforting in the moment. She scanned the horizon looking around for any eyes watching her in the distance, unnerved and put on edge. She was back at least in Gorr’s Territory which should've meant relative safety, not that she loved the Hutt or the Hutt held any love for her but the Pure Hands as crazy as they were wouldn't come searching for her in here. But it still didn't mean that somebody else would try and jump her, if not for the datapad then her just looking like an easy mark. A young girl injured and looking frantic, some easy credits in that.
She continued following the crowd down the street getting bumped along by the current of people heading every which way towards their respective destinations. Shakka liked crowds, how in a strange way they seemed to bring people together. As soon as you stepped into a
mass of people you became a little cog in an impressively large and complex machine. It didn't matter who you were: bounty hunter, smuggler, Empire’s most wanted , death stick dealer. You all became a single cohesive identity for only a moment. There was a safety in crowds as long as you knew how not to stand out.
After some time she parted with the crowds following down a less busy side street. She stopped in front of a small shop tucked away in a corner. The outside seemed to be in disarray surrounded by what appeared to be droid parts of various models: half the chassis of a GNK power droid, the limp humanoid body of a TC series and even what seemed to be a deactive B1 Battle Droid shoved to one side upon the crate. On the lone square window set into the frame of the shop scrawled in sloppy Aurebesh, Ta’rin’s Repair and Mercantile. A rotating camera swiveled by the entrance focused upon Shakka’s face for a moment before continuing to rotate about seemingly uninterested in the Twi’lek. Shakka looked about making sure that she wasn't being followed before heading inside the building.
A melodic chime ran through the shop as Shakka entered followed almost immediately by a voice from somewhere deeper in. The inside of Ta’rin’s shop was a cramped affair with shelves reaching the ceiling filled with gears, circuit boards and other long forgotten pieces of technology, the floor in no better shape with haphazardly placed boxes scattered about as if a thermal detonator had gone off only moments before. A single light fixture provided the only small cone of light by the counter at the back of the shop, the rest of the space being cast in different degrees of shadow ever increasing as you moved further towards the door. A heater having malfunctioned long ago and never being fixed runs almost constantly making the entire shop about ten degrees warmer than the already unbearable heat of the undercity.
Shakka made her way through this labyrinth of shelves and spare parts as she moved to the counter. The sound of rummaging and moving feet came closer from somewhere deeper in the building until finally a door shutter open from behind the counter. From this threshold stepped out a large insectoid creature almost 2 meters in height standing upon a pair of long legs that looked so thin that a stiff breeze could crack them. Two pairs of large compound eyes dominated the creature’s face and pair of long antennae sat behind them twitching as he moved feeling the radio waves in the air. His chitinous carapace showed the wear and tear of the year's cracked and healed in some places and having its own share of scares. Long dexterous fingers twiddled about with one another almost constantly as he stepped up to the counter to see who his customer was.
“Shakka Rar, is that you little one? And what brings you to Ta’rin’s little corner of the Undercity today?” The large creature spoke as he peered over the edge of the counter down at Shakka who looked less surprised at his appearance then more annoyed about the time it was taking. Ta’rin was a Verpine, the insectoid race from the Roche asteroid field masters of many forms of technology and creators of some of the most dangerous firearms in the Galaxy. Ta’rin himself was one of the best technologically minded individuals in all of 3030 if not on the entirety of Coruscant. They say there is no droid that Ta’rin can’t fix and no security system that he can’t break. Usually he remains isolated in his little shop working on his own personal projects. but on the rare occasion his skills are needed the gangs will hire him out from a reasonable price. It was on one such job that Shakka and Ta’rin met and after the pair survived almost being killed together became reasonable enough friends. Life and death situations were funny like that.
“Well as you can probably see, I got into a little scrap.” Shakka explained gesturing to the her arm before continuing. “A deal went bad and I got ambushed by a bunch of Pures. I was wondering if I could lay low here for a bit while I patch myself up and reassess my situation.” She pleaded as she looked up at Ta’rin with the best young and innocent child eyes she could muster. The Verpine titled his head to one side almost like a dog as he considered his options before he spoke.
“Shakka Rar is friend of Ta’rin. Shakka saved Ta’rin’s life once and Ta’rin can only try and fulfill his debt. You may stay here for as long as you need and Ta’rin will make sure nobody will find you. Ta’rin has medical supplies in refresher in the back.” The Verpine spoke and if they weren't separated by the counter, and if her arm wasn't still killing her should would've wrapped her arms around the big old insectoid softy. But still she had another favor to ask the Verpine. She didn't just come here to hide away, she needed the Verpine’s technical expertise.
“That’s great Ta’rin! Buttt you say I also have another favor that I need to ask you.” The Twi’lek explained as she reached into her jacket pocket to retrieve the datapad still soaked in the Duro’s blood. She put it upon the desk and Ta’rin long dexterous fingers reached out for it. “You see I need to find out what’s on that datapad, I almost got killed over it and before I make my next move I would like to know what I’m dealing with here. Problem is security on this little guy is real tight. But that shouldn't be a problem for you my genius friend would it?” Shakka asked though she already knew the answer. For all of Ta’rin genius and knowhow with things that Shaka couldn't even begin to comprehend he was still as easy to play as a fiddle. Present him with an intellectual challenge and his own pride would never let him refuse.
“Ta’rin will look into it. But while Ta’rin does you should care to your injury.” The Verpine explained as he gestured to the door. Shakka nodded her thanks before moving around the counter and through the door that Ta’rin had entered through earlier. The shop's backroom was a little bit more organized with the dominant space being taken up by a large operating table upon which a protocol droid lay half-assembled. Probably the Verpine’s latest project. He rebuilt droids from parts he recovered in scrap heaps and from junk traders, usually rewriting their programming for more specialty purposes like infiltration, hacking, assassination. He did them for fun more than anything else but these speciality droids were worth large sums of credits to the right people. Moving past the operating table she entered the refresher. Small even for her it most of been a tight fight for the towering Verpine but one couldn't really complain about space in 3030 you dealt with what you had.
Opening the small cabinet/mirror combination on the wall she produced a small series of medical supplies. As she began to clean the wound, she hummed a small tune to herself. A memory of her past that seemed to be a lifetime distant. When her surroundings were green and brown instead of her grey and black, a time before Geonosis, before the Clone Wars, before the Empire. When things were simpler.
|~|
“Mooooom! Shakka fell again!” A small green figure called out to Fee’nra as he ran past her and made his way around the corner of the farmhouse probably to go find his father. She sighed as she looked outward and saw a small blue figure approaching her in the distance. Rising to her feet she walked with a gentle grace to close the distance. Vyso and Shakka most have been playing too rough again and like normal one of them had to get hurt. It was usually Shakka of course, her youngest child always trying to keep up with Vyso her elder by five years. The little Twi'lek girl approached her now, clothes covered in mud and holding her right arm, eyes red with tears. Fee’nra knelt down as she approached her taking the little girl into her arms and lifting her easily into the air. An earthen mixture of her green skin and her child taking after her father’s blue skin.
“Now what happened this time Shakk'arar?” Fee’nra asked her voice gently and sing songy as she looked into the little girl’s eyes. It had a pretty obvious answer, her arm had a fairly decent scrap on it probably was running and lost her balance. But it was better if Shakka told her, help get it out of her system and calm her down a bit. The girl drawn in air through her nose small hands wrapped around her mother’s neck as the pair moved back down the small dirt road back to their house.
“I was... I was chasing after Vyso, because he called me stupid. But he ran away too fast, so I had to try and catch up to him and.. and I tripped on a hole in the ground and I feel. And now my arm really hurts!” The girl explained to her mother trying to hold back another bout of tears as she pointed to her arm. Fee’nra shook her head as she continued down the path. Sounded like a relatively normal occurrence, though she did make a mental note to talk to Vyso about making fun of his sister after dinner. Shakka had always been an emotional child and it was very easy to provoke her and Vyso had endless fun with it. Gentle teasing of course but he still needed to know that his job was to look after Shakka not goade her into getting more hurt.
When they reached the steps to the house, Fee’nra set Shakka down as she moved into the house to go grab the small medical kit. It was still out on the table after Ilarra had cut himself with the cutting torch earlier. That stoopa Twi'lek’s accident prone genes would be the end of them all some day. Packing the supplies back up into the small case, she made a small detour into the kitchen before heading outside. In one hand she had the medical kit and in the other hand she held a small plump muja fruit, fresh from the bush that they had picked earlier. She tossed the fruit over to Shakka who caught it before greedily biting into it. Now preoccupied Fee’nra went off to work cleaning the wound and preparing to patch it up. As she did she began to sing a small song that her own father had used to sing back on Ryloth.
“My brave little soldier marches off to war....”
|~|
Shakka sighed as she finished treating the blaster wound, the humming dying away and the imaginary taste of muja fruit upon her lips. It was then that she heard a commotion coming from the front of the shop. Looking around her put her jacket back on and took her blaster from the counter and put it in her hands. Crouching forward she moved to the door peering through the crack between she looked inside to see what was going on. Her breath was caught somewhere in her chest as she saw two Pures standing in front of Ta’rin. It was near suicidal for them to come this far into Hutt territory. One of them was a large male with his hair cut in a sharp military cut, dark skin and strong deep green eyes. His companion was a female with a shaved head and a body covered in tattoos, the male had a blaster pistol out in one hand and the female held what seemed to be a shock stick waiting for the opportunity to strike. Ta’rin on the other hand seemed as calm as ever. Pressing her ear against the door, Shakka struggled to listen to the words coming out.
“Now listen here you karking bug face. I’m not going to ask you nicely one more time, have you seen a Twi’lek girl around her, blue skin about maybe yeah high and probably injured?” Military cut asked his voice sounding less threatening and more annoyed.
“Ta’rin, tell you what Ta’rin tell you first five times. Nobody has come into Ta’rin’s humble shop today except for you two brutes. Trust Ta’rin he remembers all faces coming in and out.” The Verpine explained without missing a beat. Shakka was surprised, she always figured Ta’rin wouldn't be able to keep his cool in a situation like this but he seemed to be doing just fine.
“While I think your lying and I don’t like it when aliens lie to me, you sniveling piece of poodoo.” Military cut explained getting angerer as he raised his blaster pistol at Ta’rin. Shakka wanted to run out and help but the smarter coward inside of her told her to say put and see how the situation resolved itself. Shakka watched as out of the Pures perspective Ta’rin pressed a button underneath his desk. Almost immediately there was a mechanical groan as spare parts shifted behind the Verpine and on the shelf two large automatic turrets came to life and trained on the two intruders.
“Ta’rin suggest that you leave know. Ta’rin has much work he needs to get done and Ta’rin very powerful friends would not like it if that work came in late.” The Verpine spoke and if his face could grin it would be at the moment as the two Pures looked at each other as the tide had suddenly turned and not in their favor.
“Come on let’s go. Bug isn't worth it and besides Daxar is waiting for us to check in.” Tattoo girl spoke putting a hand on military cut who looked at Ta’rin then towards the exit, before sighing and holstering his blaster and stomping out of the shop with tattoo girl in tow. After waiting a couple minutes to make sure they didn't come back, Shakka stepped through the door and back into the front of the shop. Ta’rin looking at her nodded and gestured for her to come over.
“You make some interesting friends Shakka.” The verpine spoke in a tone that sounded almost amused as he fiddled around with the datapad that he had been given earlier. Shakka sighed as she slid into place next to him looking at the data pad.
“Yeah, you can say that again Ta’rin. All part of the karking job I guess. So made any progress with the datapad yet?” She asked her associate even though it was obvious he had because he was scanning through the data seemingly intrigued by the whole thing.
“Of course Ta’rin did. Security measures were basic compared to Ta’rin skill. A measly 42-7 Sullustan Cipher. A hatchling could've broken into this. But the contents inside, those are most interesting. If Ta’rin can ask who did you get this from?” The technician asked as he fished around before finding a large cable which he attached to the datapad and as it did a large display stirred to life showing a continuous string of 18 digit number sequences falling to the ground.
“Nobody important.... but Ta’rin what is this, was I just getting paid and almost killed to deliver numbers?” Shakka asked as she observed the numbers and Ta’rin made a clicking sound with his mandibles almost sounding like a tsk tsk. As he froze the display and pointed at one of the number lines with his long fingers.
“Much more complicated than that little one. These sequences are not just random numbers. These are Imperial ship credentials and high level ones at that. Using these any smuggler or other less than legal owner could have free reign of the entire galaxy without having to worry about being stopped at checkpoints or even having their ship searched. It would even allow them to get on and off Coruscant with a relative ease Ta’rin has not seen since before the Clone Wars. Very valuable these are. No wonder the Pures are looking for it. But that still doesn't answer the question of how Shakka retrieved them.” The Verpine asked as he tilted his head at Shakka. And almost on cue a call came in on her comlink. Looking down Shakka recognized the frequency almost immediately it was Inanjoma probably having just got the news about the ambush and subsequent failure of the deal. Shakka raised a finger up to Ta’rin requesting silence as she accepted the call. Speaking in Ryl she announced as calmly as possible. Ready to the face the storm head on.
<<You’ve reached Shakk'arar courier extraordinaire. How may I help you?>>
