Ask That Golden Rule

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Tacitus didn't do work with Sith, usually, as a rule simply because they had a nasty habit of assuming that they held all of the power in any given relationship. They were a pain in the arse because, sometimes, they had the power to actually back up their arrogance and there wasn't typically a way to test if they did or not before they were suddenly bringing it to bear on you. Most Sith acted the same around non-Force Sensitives and that was with an aloof sense of superiority that was only, at best, partially earned in his opinion.

This though?

This wasn't a deal with the Sith - it was a deal with A Sith. Specifically a new one, one who was wanted by her former Jedi friends and the Rangers for turning her cloak and turning to the other side. Tacitus had heard it said through various mediums that the Dark Side of the Force was a seductive thing that could entice people to do things they usually wouldn't. Which, basically, meant it was a particularly good hooker and the Sith, to his mind, were the punters who got stupid and caught feelings, thought that it wouldn't hurt them.

But it always would.

Still, just one Sith? He could make a deal with just one Sith.

The Sith as a whole? Nah, that wasn't a deal so much as it was an obstruction to be worked around.

Sitting at a table at a backwater cantina on Ord Mantel that he had selected, Tacitus was busy cleaning one of his pistols atop the table. It was a decent cover for waiting for his contact to arrive and it meant he kept a weapon out in the open and in hand. Did he think he would need to use it? No. But the Golden Rule was to be ready for shite to slam sideways in a big, quick, way.

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

Run-down districts and sleazy businesses shaped her new life. It was still better than sleeping in a Hutt on Mimban, providing healthcare and services to creatures crawling through the slums of Mimban, but not by a huge margin. The little credit she had taken with her and amassed on the way needed to be carefully spent, and one may never stand out or leave a trace to be followed.
Same went for blending in, while in the poorer regions some people actually wore hoods, it was not always applicable. Instead she had started to paint markings onto her face like most Pantorans did, and wore civilian clothing off a poorer source.

Walking down the streets searching for the right cantina, she was already contemplating her actions once she had reached the rendezvous point. She knew what she wanted, an out of here, but what would she have to pay? Or rather what could she truly offer. It was not like she could force him to get her away, she already had one body on her track list since her master died, and really had no reason to add more to the count before she had reached the Sith for good, and her position was secure.

Finding the right canteen, she entered. As the stench and sound of discussion developed her even more then before, she couldn't help but sigh and roll her eyes. No wonder criminals had a bad reputation, if they always hung out in such sleazy dens. Her eyes scanned the room. Due to the time of the meeting, the Canteen was not too full, and most places where only partially filled. But amongst the scum and riffraff, one stood out. Cleaning his blaster in a booth to the site, it was quite apparent he was waiting for someone. He also had a rather investigative look towards her, whilst the others mostly did not care. His skin covered with tattoos and his shoulders a good real broader than the norm, he painted a rather grim picture.

With a few strides she was over at his table, in her head searching for the right words. It was ludicrous how she had never shown these problems when addressing representatives or people with actual authority, but so often struggled to find the right words down at this level: "Could it be that you have been waiting for me?" She asked with a small smile. "I was told, my contact would have a lot of tats, so you seem to fit the description." She hesitated to sit down yet, he had the blaster on the table, and he looked like he liked to be in control. Why not leave him in that illusion.
@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Turns out waiting wasn’t a long process in this case.

Tacitus waved with one of his, as she said, heavily tatted hands to the chair opposite him as he finished up re-assembling the blaster pistol he had been working on. He wasn’t going to be a dick about it though so he holstered the blaster pistol under the table against his leg. She wasn’t being as arrogant as Sith usually were so he was going to give her some allowances he wouldn’t normally give.

Plus, hey, she was cute and he was a sucker for a pretty face – might even give her half a percent off the price.

“Take a seat.” He told her as he raised his hand and clicked to the bartender, “Barkeep – two hits of Spotchka.”

He already had a tab running here with a credit chip under the bar so he wasn’t worried about how much it was going to cost. Instead he refocused on the Sith ahead of him as the bartender came over with a jug of Spotchka and two small glasses. The glasses were filled in silence as Tacitus kept his silence until the bartender was gone.

Raising the glass to his new friend, he tilted his head to one side slightly.

“Cheers.” He drank and set the glass down on the table, empty, with a deep sigh, “That’s some good Spotchka… right. To business.”

Tacitus eyed her for a moment.

“What can you give me to make your disappearance seem so legit that even your best friends aren’t sure if you’re alive or not?”

He might be able to do it as well as he said, depending on how many friends she had, but he was definitely able to give her a new identity that would pass muster on a lot of worlds. The Outer Rim, Corporate Sectors and Expansion regions would be easy for him to give her a rock solid ID but inner rim and core? It would be something that could be picked up as fake.

Not that the Sith went to the Core for anything but the occasional jolly to shoot up the place, seemed like.

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

As the laid out gun on the table quickly took shape again, she rested herself on the chair opposite to him. When the barkeep ended up placing the glasses and poured their drinks, a heavy silence lay over the table. Not to be the one to break it, she just thanked him with a smile and nod, waiting for the bartender to be gone again. "Cheers", she agreed, believing that this was the way it was done. Unknowing what Spotchka was, but fearing that it may be to strung for her to chuck like her opposite, she took a humble sip before placing her glass back on the table.

She once again endured a short inspective glance of her opposite, her smile unwavering. She could even understand it, dealing with a Sith must be hard decision for someone who had probably never had contact with force users before. When he began speaking of business, she knew that it had gotten serious. "I have heard that you are good at this, so I assume it won't be too cheap" What a bad way of starting this, stating the obvious outright. Well it could certainly be fixed. "I have a number of credits from various systems, they should sum up to a pretty decent number. Yet, I have heard some of your kind do not trade in all currencies, which makes it hard to judge how much of it will truly catch your interest." The local currency that she had used on Mimban would certainly among those she would never put to good use, nowhere.

Leaning a bit forward she added "But I can offer more in addition to the credits. In a business like yours there must be something an individual like me can aid with." She quickly glanced back the rest of the Cantina, there seemed to be a bit of moved near the entrance, but no one seemed close enough to overhear them, so she once again looked at the man before her. "It is not everyday that one has a force user at his disposal" She ended, and awaited a reply. The ruckus in the canteen to rose a bit.

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Tacitus knew what his part of the current stage of negotiations was - he was supposed to sit there silently and absorb whatever offer she made and react to it. But part of her little speech just tickled him and he couldn't help himself from taking the chance to have a little bit of a playful poke at her. How often did someone get a chance to poke a Sith after all?

"My kind?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, an amused smirk playing on his face, "That being... what, exactly? Human? Non-Force Sensitive? Non-Law abiding? I'm curious as to what 'my kind' actually is."

He was just messing with her though.

Humming a little bit, Tacitus shrugged a little bit.

"You'd make a good point about not having a Force User at my disposal... if I wasn't currently sleeping with one." he rebutted with a small smirk, "I'm afraid you wouldn't be my first choice of Force User. See she kind of has a bit of an 'in' in making sure she's my favorite Force User."

But he wasn't messing with her too much.

"I'll take... five hundred credits and a favor." he held up a finger, "One favor, to be called in whenever I choose. No limits and no disclosure before I need it."

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

She swallowed, apparently she had too use as much care here as went splinting hairs with some rich man, trying to see why her charity was better for his prestige then another cause. Who would have known that gangsters even listened that closely? Even worse was, that he was actually right. But her smile stayed in place as she nodded and started to compose her answer: "I apologise, I should have been more specific. But I caught wind that you are protecting people, and someone who is capable of fighting a Jedi is certainly a help in that profession every now and then."

While she spoke she run the numbers, 500 credits, that would probably be everything she had. It would be damned luck if that left her those worthless Mimban coins. She surpassed a grumble, and kept her posture however. The fact of having a force user in his pocket was also not most exhilarating, as it clearly diminished the value of her offer greatly... as for the favour:

"An unrestricted favour, anytime anywhere without former disclosure? One could say that such a promise is hardly obtained, for I am certain not even your favourite would do everything for you..." She sighed as she thought about it. "That a man shows no remorse, forcing a poor girl in need into a promise such measure and robbing her to the last credit." There was a clear mock tone in her voice, and the sentence was clearly not ment at all.

"If you accept 450 credits, I will give you that favour. Anytime, anywhere. No disclosure. I fully understand." She did not like admitting that he had her in his grasp, but she believed that he probably did. In the background, the canteen grew quieter again.

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

She thought he protected people?

A common mistake when people thought about protection rackets. He wasn't really protecting people so much as he was extorting their desire for protection. And other criminals tended to leave others alone when there was a claim on them unless they were willing to get into a turf war with another gang. He supposed it could look like he was protecting people from some angles but he was really only focused on protecting his bottom line.

"Protection ain't always the same as Protecting." he assured her with a wink, "But I take your meaning."

She was playing the bargaining methods just the same as he was and that was fine - he expected it and even welcomed seeing how she was going to do it. Wasn't half bad at it but one of them had been a monk half of their life and it showed. The woman was good but she couldn't hold a candle to half of the people he had dealt with growing up.

He sighed in a very exaggerated manner.

"That said girl has no idea of how much hard work this ID is going to require... ah it makes me sad to know that they're not teaching street smarts in those Orders of yours." he joked back with a small smirk, "How about this? 475 credits and I confirm that the favor I will ask you will not involve you betraying your soon-to-be friends in the Sith Order."

He listed on his fingers.

"No stealing from them, murdering them or even really lying to them. Sound better?"

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

This was beginning to become frustrating, did they not call it protection? She had never had to worry about small shops and the ways they were extorted, and clearly that hindered her here. But she was quite certain that there was protection in the name. But instead of showing her annoyance outright, she just nodded and kept smiling.

Then he stated to bargain on: 475, that she should manage, but she would go from the ability to bribe her way out of a truly tough situation to resorting to sleep on the streets. "Then the girl in question will have to become thinner and be used to harder grounds for sleep". It was very hard not to frown now, instead she just allowed her smile to crack slightly, giving her face a sad tough. And she nodded. "Yeah right, it will cost you something after all, and you will need money. But I will take you by your word. When you call in your favour, I will do nothing that obstructs the Sith and their goals." She was wondering how much he could see through her facade. For the local representatives or at the few higher gatherings she had always been successful.

"Then, is it a deal?" Now she was really tense if he had anything to add. She had chosen her words with care, but was she careful enough?
@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

She was fairly good at playing the guilt trip card and if he were any less of a professional he might have been inclined to actually feel bad enough about it to actually give her some concession. But the truth of the matter was that Tacitus Agrippa was a professional scumbag rather than just one who did it was a hobby.

The wording of the agreement was loose enough that she could weasel her way out of it if she wanted to. He knew that because he'd made similarly worded deals himself in the past but he wasn't at all bothered by that. In his experience people tended to not want to go against the spirit of the agreement if the request was not anything too outside of their comfort zone.

Even with a loophole, people tended to accept requests that they didn't see as anything too bad - he would just have to make sure his request wasn't anything outlandish.

"Deal." he assured her, holding out a hand, "Shake on it, pass the credits over and we can start dealing with our friends."

He held his right hand out for her to shake.

"The bartender sold us out about five minutes ago." he explained to her, calmly, "Keep calm so he doesn't start blasting. My guess is bounty hunters and maybe a ranger. You got weapons?"

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

Her new acquaintance did not have to think for long. to take the deal, though she had a feeling that she hadn't tricked him. He merely accepted anyways. He just looked too smug. How had he dragged her across the table? The price didn't seem outlandish to her, neither did his request. Had she missed something? Whilst thinking about it all inside, she just sat there and smiled.

But then he talked about their friends. It was hard not to look, and her lightsaber at the inside of the jacket began to hang heavier. The urge to take it out grew, but she was confident that she would have enough time to draw when the fight began. She swallowed before taking his hand. "The usual ones, those that come to mind when someone thinks about my kind." She did not really want to shout Lighsaber in his face, but she knew what use of those bladed things entailed. But if they were known already, then maybe the saber wouldn't hurt. The question was just, were they here for him or her?

Her left hand went into her belt pouch and produced a small bag, charring wiry. "That should be about three-hundred, I don't want to hand you everything beforehand" She smirked, "Its more than half, so it should cover all costs you need, and the rest follows when I see what I requested." She had an uneasy feeling about this fight. "So, how do we resolve this situation, your world, your way I guess."

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Ah so she had been a true blue, card-carrying, Jedi before she decided she wanted more from life than sitting around chatting philosophy with plants and shite. Good thing too since it would usually be a pretty big group that could convince a bartender on a planet like this to turn snitch. Bartenders would get a bad rep if it didn't look like they had no other choice but to rat them out and the guy at the bar wasn't a weakling so Tacitus was confident that they weren't dealing with some lone ranger with a blaster on his hip.

He hummed.

"Good, don't go flashing them around yet." he urged her, "Let's see how they're gonna play this by getting out of her as if we don't already know what's gonna happen."

Tacitus stood from their table and gestured for her to follow him even as the bartender suddenly looked more nervous than before. He flashed the bartender a winning smile before drawing his pistol. Drawing a pistol was quicker than pulling a rifle from out behind the bar, as the bartender discovered as he ate a blaster bolt to the face and went down, firing up at the ceiling as he fell.

Patrons started to leave almost immediately but a few took the opportunity to start looking the bar. Tacitus didn't much care and the bartender was too busy being dead to try and stop them.

"Spaceport." he told her with a wave of his pistol, "We'll take my ship, jet off this rock and I'll make what you wanted on the way. If the credits still look so steep to you... think of it as also part taxi fare to anywhere in this Rim of space. But we gotta get a move on. Light up the glowstick and let's feck off."

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

She listened quickly to his elaboration, then she nodded. It was quite simple, spring the trap and see how to handle it from there. She just hoped that no Jedi were here with these Rangers, else this would get brutal. She rose from her seat, and turned towards the exit, when she saw the movement in the corner of her eye. Her new friend was fast, she had her hand barley on her hilt when the bartender dropped down.

The ensuing chaos was only to be expected, her hand enclosed on her sabre, she did not yet activate the blade, looking for whom remained. A few guests took to the cash registry, stepping over the body. She was surprised to see how little the dead man worried her at this point. She scanned through the room for the men that were certainly here for her.

"Spaceport" Tats snapped, and she agreed. Luckily she had no possessions that were not on her, the perks of being indigent. She started to walk towards the door, concentrating on her surroundings. She did not want to fall victim to any little surprise maybe waiting for her. Still she lend half an ear to the man besides her "No complaints Sir, this girl starts to get a grip of the extent such preliminary costs can take" When he mentioned the sabres, she activated the one in her hand, the room around her tainted by the red glow. It mattered little. If they knew they were here, they knew who she was. There were no other Pantorans around.

@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

She had chosen to ignite her little glowstick - a good choice in his opinion - but one that immediately marked her intentions as far as even the looters were concerned. When they caught sight of the colour of her blade they ran from the scene as quickly as they could and he could appreciate that. Some crooks tended to be crooks who still preferred their own arseholes in power to difference arseholes in power, and the Sith?

Well they were arseholes and they wanted power.

Thankfully Tacitus had never been a patriotic kind of guy.

"Alright way should be clear of looters - means we're gonna kill everyone who steps to us, confident that they were basically asking for it." he declared as he moved to the front door, "Get ready. If I were them I'd have this entrance locked down but they've not been here long enough to do a good job."

Time to show them why they should have arrived quicker.

Opening the door, Tacitus was immediately able to see a small team of bounty hunters setting up. Two of them were in the first stages of setting up an e-web turret and the other three were checking the crowds of fleeing looters to make sure that Chi hadn't managed to escape amongst their numbers.

Which would have been a decide idea now that he thought about it but oh well.

He immediately opened fire on those working on the turret, killing one with a duo of shots to the chest and clipping the left shoulder of another before he was forced to jump into cover to one side to avoid the return fire.

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

He lead the way, which actually was, well, stupid. He couldn't sense fire or deflect bolts. So she made sure to catch up as fast as she could. She needed him, after all he had already taken her cash and he would get her of this rock. Now that she was compromised, she needed him more than ever.

He had already killed one of the men setting up the turret when she stepped outside. Another was just dodging for cover. She smirked, he would not get away so easy. With a flick of her offhand, she hauled the turret after him, the cracking of his armour was audible oner the chaos. The man was still struggling under the weight, his backplates horridly bent and blood streaming out of him, but he seemed to be in his last convulsions. The other three now opened fire, and civilians threw themselves to the ground or stormed into the adjacent buildings. She did her best to shield herself and her current ally from the bolts. Slowly clearing the field between them.

"Fire already!" She said, sweat drops forming on her forehead. Their combined firepower was too much. She wanted to deflect some bolts their way, but she was hard-pressed to keep the two of them safe. Bolts crashing in around them.

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Well having a Force User with a glowstick around was good for portable cover it seemed because she was blocking all the shots and all he had to do was stay behind her. The view wasn't too bad standing behind her either so Tacitus was rather happy with the arrangement, taking potshots over her shoulder at people too focused on the 'Jedi' to properly realize they were being shot at with accuracy that meant it wasn't the reflected shots.

Two of them were downed before they figured that out before the third turned tail and ran. Tacitus considered ending him as well before shrugging a little bit and aiming down the road. He pulled the trigger, blasting the man in the back of the knee and moving to leave the area, humming slightly as he reloaded his pistol.

"Let him scream for awhile." he told her as he made his way toward the spaceport, "He'll draw attention to himself and we'll be further away by the time they realize I left him as a distraction."

He wasn't cruel for the sake of cruelty - just cruel when it served his purposes.

"So what did you do to get them chasing after you?" he asked her bluntly as he checked the surrounding rooftops along their journey, "Shite in the Grandmaster's hat? Touch a youngling? Kill your Master?"

That last one was, of course, the only serious question.

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

With their attackers dead and in withdrawal she could take a break, and a breath. Not yet willing to put the sabre away, she merely lowered it and walked alongside the thug. She listened to his talk as they passed the injured man who could not get away, squirming and screaming. Raising him with the force, she cut of his force and looked in his eyes. They were filled with fear. She listened to the screams coming from the surrounding alleyways as the news spread and men still fled from the shots they heard.

"I believe we can have ourselves a better distraction" She said curtly, tilting her head and looking at the building behind him. With a flick of her hand she hauled the stifling hunter against the entry door of one of these poor backwater buildings, using the force and his weight to break it in. On the inside one could hear him coughing. As a smile came to her face, a thin streak of flame leaped from each of her offhand fingers, and the coughs turned to a deafening scream. She only stopped when the flames inside had caught the floor and furniture, and voices could be heard. The whole scene only took a moment, but strangely it relaxed her. At that thought a part of her began to shudder.

"Lets get to the spaceport, before they put the flames out." She started to walk on. She would not answer his obvious joke question.

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Tacitus watched as the Sith did what Sith did best; cruelty for it's own sake disguised by a thin veneer of practicality.

It was a fine line between what he had done to what she had done, granted, but his plan had been done with the minimum amount of damage to property and person. The man he had shot would have lived if his allies arrived in time and the man she threw into the fires would not. His plan had involved shooting one man, an ally, and having the people following them go after the man because he was known to be an ally.

"... why would they go into a burning building of someone they don't know or care about?" he asked her with a raised eyebrow, "In full view they can see an ally is down. Right now they see a stranger's building on a planet they're not even from is on fire."

He huffed out a sigh and picked up the pace.

"Hope it at least made you feel better."

Tacitus was, as expected, being sarcastic but that was probably because he could see the small spaceport at the end of the road and he could also see that there was a small company of mercenaries guarding it, under the supervision of at least a dozen sector rangers. A hundred mercs and bounty hunters were usually not too well organised but under Ranger control?

He pulled her into a side alley.

"Alright we need to get into the spaceport without being seen." he urged her, "There's too many for either of us to do anything stupid or violent. Can you do that mind trick thing?"

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

Walking on she hid her sabres again, listening to him talk, frowning. She herself was not quite sure what had overcome her, but she would not admit that. Certainly not. So she talked on. "It is not about the hunter, it is about the chaos. Official bodies will be tied up with the fire, and the hunters will be the only ones after us."

She also picked up her pace, not wishing to be left behind. It was bad reasoning and she knew it. "Alright, you may or may know what it is like to be hunted. Sleeping in the streets, hiding your face. Fearing for your life, knowing every credit you spend on food could be a credit missing when you eventually find a solution to your trouble. I overreacted, alright?" She had no idea why she felt the need to explain it. She was still confused about the whole murder. Yet the excitement had felt so wonderful.

The sudden pull made her wary, and she had one hand under her jacket when he spoke. She exhaled and calmed down. "Yes, yes I can. I can also project an illusion, or change my appearance for a very short time. I can distract if that is what you want. Just tell me what you need."

@Nefieslab

 

[Tacitus Agrippa]

Tacitus didn't much care but she seemed to want to explain herself and... apologize for overreacting? Huh that was a new one for a Force Sensitive. Even the Jedi didn't ever really say they were sorry for something. Even if she hadn't actually used the word, he got the feeling she was trying to repair a bridge she thought she had damaged with her actions.

It was kind of sweet really but not required. Tacitus worked with his brother who he ended up having a no-holds barred brawl with every other week so she was fine. If she thought him disagreeing with her methods was the end of their working relationship - or even really risked it - she was in for a surprise.

He just shrugged.

"It's whatever." he assured her, "Don't worry about it. You do things however they work for you so long as they don't get me killed."

He didn't really have high bars when it came to measuring success or failure.

Dead or not dead - simple really.

"You think you can make a persausive illusion of some Sith down some alleyway terrorizing some locals?" he suggested with a frown, "That should get the rangers all riled up to give chase."

Good guys were like that.

@Cpt Geary

 

[Chi Soni]

She nodded, somehow regretting already that she had apologised. "No way I'm letting you die now that you carry all my money" a smirk reappeared on her face as she listened to him.

"Luckily for you, I am quite handy with Illusions. It could work, but I would need to know where those good guys are looking for it to actually work... and it would be better if I could see the place myself..." It was oc course not nearly as easy as she made it out to be, but she wouldn't admit that. Yet she herself also had another idea.

"If the goal of the exercise is to just distract them however, I can change my own appearance as well. They are looking for a Pantoran, I doubt they will pay much attention to some Zeltron for example." That would be easier. Especially cause she would just have to change the colours the others saw, not shape a new object out of nothing. And it would probably be less alarming to the guards then if they saw a Sith coming towards them, illusion or not.

"So, what do you say? Distraction or abstraction? If we hurry we could pull either"