The Conclusion

[Narir Solus]

Narir watched as they plunged into the outer atmosphere and into space. It was a moment later and the stars turned to streaks around them, sending them hurtling through hyperspace. It was the one point where they could be sure they weren't going to be immediately attacked because there was no ability to intercept another ship in hyperspace.

The Mandalorian sucked in on the cigar, blowing out a stream of smoke before taking a deep breath in. The smokey taste in his mouth lingered as he thought about what she said. She was a worrier. She always had been, and that was why the clan was better off for it, but that was why Narir was there to lighten things up for her.

The badgers are tough, he said, his tone becoming a bit more thoughtful. But there will be repercussions for our raids, he said, But when it comes, we'll be ready. The line of thought did bring him to thinking about the risks of what they were doing.

We might need to be ready to move. If they find where the clan is, it'll be bad, he said, taking another drag of his cigar before waving his hand in the air. Bah! You worry too much! Look at all we've done so far and they're just sitting on their shebs all day. Worthless Sith, he said with a smile. We'll be crusading and conquer the Empire before anyone is the wiser if the other Houses wake up. How do ya think we can get them to do that? he asked.

 

[Raz Solus]

Nar was much more of a cigar person than she was. She watched him casually leaning back and puff on it, having the time of his life. She simply grinned and shook her head, drawing in her own smoke before puffing it out. Raz tilted back in her own seat, toying with the saber hilt she had in her possession. She wondered what it was like to actually fight with it, but would she actually have credibility if she did? She was taken out of her thoughts when Nar spoke.

“There will be swift retribution..” She sighed, “I just know it. It’ll be innocents paying the price. Our men and women are ready to lay down their lives, but what about those innocents that never had a role in any of this?” Raz gazed ahead of herself, “What if I make a wrong decision that costs the lives of hundreds or thousands. We are so damn bold all the time…reckless even.”

She looked over at him for a moment longer, “Do you believe in this? In me?” She wasn’t sure why she was asking this. She felt foolish for doing it, but it wasn’t often she had moments like this with him. He had known her for a very long time, and he was one of the few people she let her walls down near.

 

[Narir Solus]

He sucked on the cigar smoke as he listened to what she said. She wasn't wrong about it either. The retribution would be harsh. This was going to be a war about ideals and there were going to be a lot of people who died in the crossfire. Mandalorians, Mandalorian citizens, Imperials, and Imperial citizens. They would try to stamp out the Mandalorian people, but it wasn't so easy. Mandalore was resilient, and the Badgers even more so.

They needed more men and women. The Badgers alone couldn't topple the Empire, but Mandalore as a whole could. The thoughts were enough to crush him under the weight of anxiety, so he tried not to think about things like that. But Raz... well, it was her job to think about those things. I wouldn't be here if I didn't, he told her assuringly. Narir wasn't going to risk life and limb if he wasn't invested in what they were doing.

You're going to change the tide of Mandalore, he told her before promptly blowing a stream of smoke into her face intentionally. She knew him well enough to know that such an action was a means of diverting her from the graveness of her thoughts, but that made his opinion and statement no less true. He did believe that she and the rest of Solus would change the course of the Mandalorians. It had already begun, but placing that all on her shoulders was unfair.

That's why you've got me, he said with a shrug. But hey, what do I know? he asked with a smirk. He held up a fist for her to bash with her own. Badgers forever, yeah? Let's show those Imps what a swift kick in the shebs will do. He had always been more of the devil-may-care between the two, and it showed in most of their interactions.

So what do you think we'll find when we get to... wherever we're going? he asked. The planet wasn't something he was familiar with, but it was clear that whoever was there dealt in some shady industry. At least Narir hoped for some military grade gear. @Sreeya

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz was about to open her mouth to complain, but he effectively cut her off with the smoke. She simply rolled her eyes and reached over to smack him on the shoulder, “Jackass,” She muttered under her breath, though there was a smile still on her face. She turned back towards the console, realizing that they were making their approach towards the planet soon. Raz turned to look at Nar and smiled, “I’m glad I have you in my corner. I don’t know if I’ll change any tides, but with you I’ll at least cause some ripples.”

As he asked about what they might find, Raz shrugged, “I’m hoping some decent guns. If it’s high quality spice, we might be able to get a good price for it somewhere. I’m trying to get out of the smuggling life, honestly,” She sighed, “I want to get away from doing the things that have been giving us a bad reputation. I can’t control every Badger, but I can at least hope to influence,” She felt as if she were rambling, and she quickly cleared her throat, focusing back on the descent.

She saw a lot of blue as they broke through the atmosphere, and she leaned in to have a closer look, “Who knew a smuggler planet could be so beautiful? You could vacation here….if you didn’t have to worry about getting robbed,” Raz grinned, taking in sight of the planet.

She let him handle the piloting, not trusting herself to be useful at all in that regard. It was a running joke that she had no piloting skills in her clan. Raz put her helmet back on, putting out the cigar so they were prepared. She had no idea how their armor would be taken to in this space, but there was no real law here. They had a bounty on them, and that meant that anyone could chase them at any point. In truth, she hoped that happened, always up for a challenge.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir smirked at her reaction. Of course. We're going to make a lot more than ripples, he assured her. The two of them were going to shift the tide of Mandalore and perhaps even the rest of the galaxy. Or they'd die trying, that was always a possibility too. I could use some better guns. The shriek-hawk I had... he let out a heavy sigh and rolled his eyes as he remembered the bad luck he'd had with it. ...it jammed and nearly got me killed, I swear, he said with a shake of his head.

As they dropped out of hyperspace, the world came abruptly into view. It was impressive, and Narir could certainly understand why she'd say they could vacation here. Maybe we should, he said, immediately realizing how absurd it was that they might ever actually get away from the onslaught of missions that seemed to always be following them around.

He eased the controls of the ship down, angling for the ground and one of the landing pads when the display in front of them flickered to life. It was an alien species Narir had never seen before with a wrinkled face, long snout, and beady little half-glowing eyes. It was really pretty horrendous looking, and addressed them in basic.

Freighter, identify yourself. What is your purpose? the voice asked. Raz had done some smuggling in her day, but Narir's experience with that was mostly limited to anything he'd helped her with along the way. He was sure she knew how to address them... pretty sure. If not, they risked being shot out of the sky.

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz chuckled at the idea of going on vacation. For some reason, the concept sounded so alien to her. She couldn’t imagine simply lounging around on a beach somewhere, not while there were Sith to be killed. At the same time, a break from the mundane activities of trying to bring the clan up sounded enticing, “Maybe I should. I’m far less recognizable in a bikini, I admit. Bounty hunters would stroll right by me,” She chuckled at the thought, musing about the next time she would get a true break to relax.

As the voice came asking them to identify themselves, Raz straightened up in her seat and spoke into the comms, “This is The Prestige coming in from Imperial space. We got held up and flagged by them… barely escaped with our lives,” She counted on pointing to the Imperial dead bodies on the ship if they had to provide evidence. There was a long moment of pause where she was sure they were about to be shot out of the sky.

“Well…” She bit her lip nervously. After a while, they were finally given the green light. She sighed, wiping a bead of sweat away as they entered the atmosphere. Raz spotted a landing bay they could descend into. She put on her helmet and prepared to leave the ship. She began going through the terminal, downloading the location they needed to head to into her datapad.

“Looks like it’s just half a mile East of here,” She grinned in anticipation, “Sneak or guns blazing?”

 

[Narir Solus]

Dice​

Narir laughed quietly as she mentioned that the hunters would walk right past her in a bikini. He was fairly sure it was just because their minds would be far too occupied with other things. On a serious note, though, the thought of a vacation sounded nice. Getting drunk out of his mind, smoking, spicing it up. It would have been a fantastic way to spend a week and not have to worry about waking up the next day to go shoot Imperials.

The tension in the cockpit was palpable. Narir's eyes scanned the horizon of this new world for the telltale green streak of turbolaser fire that would crack their shields and bring them out of the sky in a molten hunk of metal. That was a pleasant thought...

The tension only grew the closer they got to the ground before they got the green light. Narir let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding and arced the ship's nose toward the ground, accelerating slightly before pulling back more quickly. The sooner they could get on the ground, the better Narir would feel. Then they were down. The ship thunked to the ground and Narir grabbed his helmet and the rest of his gear.

Do you think... they'd trade us? he asked. It was a weird question, and he was usually the one to go in shooting, but he wondered if this ship had things on it they could trade. These were clearly enemies of the Empire, and he wondered if they could find something useful aboard to sell. He began to pick through the ship, pulling at floorboards and heading to the cargo bay. Where would you hide things in your smuggling days? he asked her, pawing around and finding absolutely nothing except some porg crap in one corner.

 

[Raz Solus]

Dice roll 1
Dice roll 2 ​

Raz quirked an eyebrow at him as he asked if they would be willing to trade something. She silently watched as he practically tore the ship apart to look for something of value. As he stumbled upon the porg crap, Raz had to chuckle and shake her head, “Oh yeah, found some real gold nuggets there,” She looked in the compartment in front of her, finding a fat stack of credits. She began to walk, lowering the exit ramp. As he asked where she hid things, she mockingly gasped, “Wow, Nar, how rude of you to ask a woman that,” She gave him a playful nudge before she walked down the ramp, “I used hollowed out datapads, comms, anything you can think of really. I mainly dealt in the spice business. It’s very simple and pays well.”

She continued to walk towards the building in question, taking the stash of credits with her. If they could do this without running into trouble, it would be easy to simply get out. She half wondered if they shouldn’t try to steal the freighter too, but that was probably aiming too high. After a short walk, they appeared near the warehouse and she noticed there was a door with a slit in front of it. Raz knocked on the door and a man opened the slit. He almost went to close it, but she flashed the credits.

After a moment, the door was opened and she walked in. The man eyed her suspiciously, looking at her armor and then at Nar’s, “Y’all got a pretty price on your head,” He muttered gruffly.

“Which is worth more, credits or your life?” She tapped the lightsaber on her hip and the man physically recoiled. She ignored this, “I’m here to do business. We heard there are some nice guns being produced and traded here. We have the credits and want to look at the merchandise.”

“How did you know-“

“Don’t waste my time,” Raz interjected, pushing a few credits into his hand to shut him up. He paused and then nodded, leading them a corridor. Raz grinned beneath her helmet. So far this was better than going in guns blazing.

 

[Narir Solus]

Dice​

Narir had to say that this was going quite well so far. He wondered what he could do to botch it up. There was inevitably going to be something, because his luck certainly hadn't improved lately. As they made their way over to the smuggling ring, he began to wonder if spice smuggling wasn't something worth his time. Raz seemed to want to get out of the business, but if it was that lucrative, maybe he should think about it.

That was his thought process until he remembered that smuggling relied on stealth, subtlety, and the ability to avoid getting into trouble or gunfights. Those were pretty much all of his worst skills. He was pretty sure that Koil had gotten tired of - or found very amusing - watching Narir's attempts at bungled stealth over and over again.

Raz was understandably pleased with herself and her ability to get inside. She thrived in this environment far more than he ever did, so he happily followed in her footsteps as they made their way down the hall toward the gear.

Narir may not have been an expert in smuggling, the underworld, or smooth talking, one thing he did know was guns, and oh were there a lot of them. Crates on creates of pistols, rifles, carbines, grenades, and every other type of illegal tool you could want.

He perused through their stock before settling on a pair of very costly pistols. They were disruptors, and highly illegal. But they also hit harder than anything else in the galaxy. We'll take three, he said, glancing over at Raz. It wouldn't be cheap, but it would be worth it. I'm surprised you sell these, Narir said. The people who sold these were often hunted fiercely by all sorts of people, even more so than those who carried them.

So you two know what you're getting into? the dealer asked, sending a shifty look at Raz. I guess you already have bounties, though, don't you? he asked. It was no secret what Solus had been up to. You got the cash for that? he asked the two of them. They're not cheap, he said, driving the point home.

 

[Raz Solus]

Raz’s mouth hung open at all the crates they came across. It had every kind of gun or explosive imaginable and she took it all in. Thankfully she had her helmet on, or this would have looked very embarrassing. She walked over to a particular box full of illegal but powerful weapons, sifting through them, “Yes, we’ll take three of these,” She echoed Nar. Raz was always excited about new guns, and this was going to be quite the haul.

As the dealer spoke, Raz grinned, “Don’t worry about that, we have the cash,” She fished out the credits she found conveniently in the compartment on the ship. The man looked more than a little pleased, taking the credits and actually checking to make sure they weren’t counterfeit. Raz rolled her eyes and waited, watching the man finally admit the price was solid. He handed the guns over and Raz took them graciously.

“I’m grabbing one for Dopey,” She explained to Nar as she took the third gun, “Hopefully this will keep him alive when he inevitably gets into bullshit again,” She grinned. All in in all, this had been a better turnout than she had hoped for. Sure some people died, and there was no doubt that they would be tracked somehow by Imperials, but it ended with them getting some nice guns.

“Well, I’m up for getting a drink and seeing the sights,” She waved goodbye to the dealer and began to leave the warehouse, more than thrilled about her new possessions.

 

[Narir Solus]

Narir happily ran his hands over his new prized possession. They had come a long way and worked very hard for these babies, but it was worth it. These were extraordinarily difficult to come by for a reason. He weighed it in his hand before slipping it away. Pleasure doing business with you. Maybe you'll see us around again sometime, he said with a nod from behind his helmet.

The pair were quickly on their way and Narir was beaming from behind his helmet. This is so awesome, he said, practically giddy. It was like a Core World child on Life Day. At least, before the Empire came along.

100% agreed, he said when she suggested they go get drinks and see the sights. They needed a break, and he was more than happy to take it here. In fact, he almost wondered if they could get away with being normal people here. The world of criminals and smugglers surely had to be willing to take a few Mandalorians with bounties on their heads.

//Thread