632. Taking Out the Trash - Trychon and Raezyr

In the massive confusion that unfolded in the next few moments, Dianna dived and rolled to her left, hoping that Mannix had the foresight to do something similar. Visibility in the room had dropped to roughly a meter and the crowds were in complete pandemonium, searching for a way out of the growing maelstrom of blind blaster bolts.

As some of the combatants regained their senses, several shots hit close to where she'd been. She saw two aliens curled up in a ball at her feet, covered in shrapnel. Some of the charges the Sith used must have been fragment grenades. That could have hit any of them. She decided she'd fume at the brothers later.

First things first, she needed a weapon. The original plan had been for Trychon and Raezyr to drop down from one of the vents and toss her a blaster carbine, but when the ductwork and ceiling gave way, the weapon had either gotten left above or lost in the debris.

Smoke choked the room and Dianna could hear the grating noises as Sootoo's platform receded into what was most likely a safe room where she could monitor the melee in relative safety. That couldn't happen. If Sootoo survived then all of this was for naught. She most likely had relatives among bigger and more powerful Hutt's and an attempt on her life would not and could not go unpunished.

Similarly, an up and coming Hutt makes enemies of those she steps on and worries those above her. Once Sootoo was eliminated, relatives would most likely make a show of trying to catch the perpetrators, but most likely wouldn't worry about it too much after a few weeks.

A figure loomed in the smoke in front of her and she launched a fist straight at it's throat. She felt it's windpipe crumple under the blow and she yanked it's blaster from it's hands as it crumpled to the floor.

All around was smoke with flashes of blaster bolts. Every once in a while the glow from a red or blue or green or black light saber would flash into existence, and bolts from around the room would pour toward it's location, but as quickly as it would appear, it would disappear. Raezyr and Trychon weren't stupid enough to give free targets, and it was clear that Mannix was holding his own.

Dianna pushed herself into action, launching herself across the room towards the grating sound of Sootoo retreating to safety. Two more ghostly silhouettes materialized out of the smoke and she bashed one in the face with the butt of her blaster, then spun around and sunk the muzzle into the abdomen of the other and pulled the trigger. The stench of seared flesh filled her nostrils as she ducked under the reach of the first figure who was now holding his face with one hand and groping blindly with the other.

The pirate queen snatched a second weapon from the person she had shot. It was a carbine, as powerful as a rifle, but cut down to be useful indoors. It's what she preferred when going into combat. She could also rely on the commando hand to hand combat training that Zanz had drilled into her head growing up. She quickly put all thoughts of him out of her mind and continued forward.

Two Gamorreans must have spotted her as she made her crouched run. The first swung it's gigantic battle axe and she dove over it head first. She tucked, rolled, and twisted her body, coming up firing at the two big swine-like warriors turning to attack. Her first shot took one in the throat and the second shot took the other in the chest.

She heard a clang behind her and her heart sunk. Dianna was too late. The door to Sootoo's safe room had closed.

631. Taking Out the Trash - Trychon

Dianna and Mannix rode the automatic turbo-lift upward in near silence, mentally preparing for what would come next. She avoided making any faces while she considered the small amount of groveling that would be involved on her part.

Then she noticed that her diminutive companion shuddered.

"What is it?" She asked him.

"Nothing. At least, I think so. I had a... daydream. Imagined myself turning a corner and getting caught in a flamethrower blast. It was very vivid."

"Daydream?" She gasped. "Are you sure it's not some Force thing?"

"Yeah, I've had a few now and my masters insist that even they don't get Force visions. I just have an overactive imagination, I guess. Still adjusting to the galaxy outside my old home, I suppose."

She was about to ask him more questions, but was interrupted by the doors opening. As they opened her heart sank, and she realized that their inside information had been correct. This was a bad day to choose for their mission. She took two steps in, to allow the doors to shut behind her.

The area they were in now was obviously the grand audience chamber for Sootoo, but it was filled from wall to wall with aliens in ways she couldn't have expected. Their source had told them that some event was coming up, but it was unclear what. Dianna sweared under her breath and looked to Mannix, who had followed her out of the turbo-lift and was clutching his case as close as he could now.

"Life-day celebration. I should have known." She sighed, as she looked around wondering how this would affect their plans. With this many aliens crowded in the middle of the area, things could get ugly real quick. She couldn't come up with any decent ideas, so she tried to push the second thoughts out of her mind.

"Trident to Ice-Queen. What's a Life-day celebration?" Trychon's voice came through her mini-com.

"It's a fairly common holiday of sorts especially among aliens. It involves gatherings of family and friends. Clearly there are a lot of people who would like Sootoo to consider them one of the two."

She reminded them to keep the chatter down and began to navigate her way through the crowd, hoping that Mannix would keep close. She had to turn back a number of times to be sure though.

"Ho, Ho, Ho..." As she neared the other side of the chamber, a deep laughter rang out, though not as deep as most hutts she'd dealt with.

What followed was a long rambling of Huttese, which Dianna always wished she'd taken the time to pick up on, given the rumors of bad translators.

The droid standing next to Sootoo spoke when its master was finished. "The honorable madam Sootoo welcomes Ms. Kingsdoom and wishes to thank her for bringing the most welcome of Life-day gifts."

She bowed ever so slightly, enough to give respect, but not enough to take her eyes off the lowly crime-lord. "While we have never dealt directly with your organization, we have always respected Hutt space and have enjoyed good relations. We appreciate the opportunity you have provided us to allow this to continue."

She was hoping that her audience with Sootoo would be more private, so she could try to squeeze out any information that may have let her know if the hutt had been given any inside information by a traitor, rather than figuring it out on her own. With the circumstances though, she was forced to let that hope die.

The droid was beginning to translate for her again when she was distracted by conversation over the comm.

"Trident to Sun Ray. I'm sorry I didn't get you any presents for Life-day..."

"Not now, Trident."

"I have a joke I think would be appropriate though. A naked Correlian blonde walks into a bar with a shaved solarian lizard under one arm, and a two-foot nerf sausage under the other. The bartender says, I guess you won't be needing a drink. The naked lady says..."

Just then Dianna's eyes darted to the right, as there was a crash that could barely be heard over the ruckus in the room, and Trychon and Raezyr came barreling through the ceiling only 3 meters from where she was standing.

The noise died down quickly and Dianna saw looks of confusion around the room as the two Sith got up and dusted themselves off. She prepared herself to react, as it wasn't going to be long before the Hutt ordered them all dead.

Trychon bent over and picked something up off the floor. "Forgot my datapad."

Raezyr looked around the room. "Hey... this isn't where I parked my speeder!"

As Dianna suspected, Sootoo began to bark out commands, and various of her henchmen slowly began to put their hands on their holsters, waiting for further orders.

The translator droid yelled as much as a droid was able. "The honorable Sootoo demands to know the meaning of this betrayal!"

Trychon looked at the droid and then to Dianna. "Well... there goes the element of surprise..."

Then with a slight glance that she'd come to recognize as a short command through their Force connection, the brothers acted simultaneously. They reached into their cloaks and pulled out an assortment of small explosives and what looked like smoke charges.

Tossing them into the air, Raezyr yelled "Surprise, Hutt-face!"

630. Taking Out the Trash - Raezyr

The beats pumped inside the night club owned by Sootoo the small-time Hutt crime lord, and were only partially muted by the walls of the building. Dianna was glad she wouldn't have to enter that part of the building. The noise could interfere with being able to hear any of the transmissions sent to tiny earpiece hidden under the skin just behind her ear.

She glanced at the boy Mannix calmly standing by with his dark suit and darkened sun visor obscuring his eyes. She could tell his calmness was on the outside only as the tiny trickle of sweat running down his cheek gave the only evidence to the anxiety that must be overwhelming inside. She knew he'd seen some cities before, but never an ecumenopolis like the Smuggler's Moon. He'd only recently left his home planet where he grew up in a small village, now here he was, standing in one of the worst hives of scum and villainy in the entire galaxy. His calm exterior amazed her and she wasn't sure she'd be nearly as calm if she was in his place. Maybe Raezyr and Trychon's faith in the kid wasn't as misplaced as she thought it may have been.

Dianna approached the male Duros standing guard on the side door and gave him the appropriate pass code, the one Sootoo had given her when she had finally sent word to the Hutt she was on her way to pay her "respects." The blue skinned alien pulled out a scanner and indicated both she and Mannix hold their hands out to the sides.

They complied and the guard ran the scanner a few inches from their bodies. When he reached the small of Dianna's back, an alarm on the scanner sounded and the Duros pulled the vibro-knife from it's sheath at her waistband. He gave her a disapproving look. Dianna smiled, "Hey, you can't expect a girl to go completely unprotected in a place like this, can you?"

Apparently the guard had no sense of humor. Instead of answering he tucked the weapon inside his coat and finished the scan, with no other incidents. "You'll get your weapon back when you leave," he informed her. He looked quizzically at the case Mannix was holding. "What's in the case, kid?"

Mannix opened his mouth to reply, but Dianna was quicker. "It's for Sootoo. A business deal. We'll show it to her only. She's expecting us, and I'm pretty sure you know that."

The blue-skinned alien looked sour. He clearly did indeed know it, but was hoping for a look in the case anyway. He stepped back instead and whispered into what must have been a hidden comlink in his cuff. The door opened for the two guests, then closed behind them again once they had entered.

The area they found themselves in was just a small foyer and a set of turbo-lift doors. There were no controls for the lift, and looking behind her, there were no controls leading outside. Looking up she saw cameras covering every angle in the small room. Clearly whomever was watching on the other side of those cameras had control, and only when they were certain would they open the doors or activate the turbo-lift.

Dianna looked over at Mannix. "Trident, we're inside," she said. Mannix just smiled back, but in Dianna's ear, she heard a response. "I copy you, Ice Queen. Sun Ray and I are working on getting into place, and Striker and Redman are standing-by for the signal. No word from Deep Blue. How is Night Rider holding up?" It was Trychon.

Dianna put her hand on Mannix' shoulder and kept pretending she was talking to him. "Everything is going well so far."

Another voice came across the comm channel, and Dianna recognized it as Raezyr. "I knew I should have been around when you picked out call signs. I mean, 'Sun Ray?' Seriously?"

"Cut the chatter, Sun Ray. Mission essential comm traffic only," Trychon's voice responded. Dianna could envision the ear to ear grin on his face as he said it. She could also picture the sour look on her lover's face and it was all she could do to keep from laughing out loud.

629. Taking Out the Trash - Trychon

Dianna Kingsdoom continued down the walkway towards their destination and steeled her nerves. She always got a little nervous and edgy before something like this, but used it to concentrate on what had to get done. She found it ironic that this seemed similar to what Raezyr and Trychon described to her as their source of power.

The boy Mannix walked next to her, carrying an unremarkable box filled with remarkable amounts of untraceable credcards. She couldn't tell how he was dealing with the situation, but she imagined it had to be quite a test for him. Even had he been taller, it was obvious he was young. She had argued against bringing him along, but he and the Sith brothers insisted. He had turned into a fine pilot, and spent a lot of time by himself supposedly practicing combat. Still, it made her nervous, which she supposed would only make her fight that much harder if it came to that.

The boy had wanted to wear a robe similar to the ones that the Sith wore at times, but she told him he couldn't because he would look like a Jawa, and it would bring unnecessary attention. He had pouted for a bit about that, but he knew better than to argue the point. He wanted to come along so badly.

They weren't far away now. It had been necessary to park their ship at the second nearest dock because the nearest one was too close. Sootoo the Hutt would have eyes on every approach to her building. The problem wasn't that they didn't want to be seen as much as it was that they wanted to not appear too quickly, which would only make the Hutt more apprehensive than she already likely was.

A nice calm approach would certainly serve their cause best. Having an agent on the inside certainly couldn't hurt either. Already, the information on the facility had proven invaluable in making a quick plan of attack. In fact, it was a very good plan and she was constantly surprised by Trychon's innovative thinking, though she wouldn't tell him that. The aurodium boost had been ingenious and dangerous, though it had bought them nothing but trouble so far.

Actually, when she thought about it she was just as impressed with Raezyr's additions to the plan. It seemed that the older brother would suggest a general tactic, and then the younger of the two would revise it with specifics of how to approach it and attack. It was yet another interesting dynamic between the two of them.

The only issue that she had with their planning was the complete lack of contingent plans. If anything went wrong in the plan, they were simply going to fly by the seats of their pants. Somehow she wasn't comforted by Trychon's assurance that, 'Hey... that's when we're at our best!' before going on with their singular plan.

As they turned the corner to their target, Dianna nearly jumped when she saw a distracted Mannix bump into a very large human male, who instantly agitated. She put her hand on her friend's shoulder and interposed herself in between him and the burly man in an blink. She stopped her body just short of rubbing up against the man, hoping to distract him. She was glad she'd worn something form-fitting and flattering.

"Please don't mind my page, cutie. He's not accustomed to your big... city." She smiled at him while batting her eyes. "That sure is a large... gun belt you have there..." slowly reaching out to run her fingers over what truly was a very large gun belt.

The man seemed taken aback by the smell of her perfume momentarily, but then he grabbed her by the wrist before she could make a move for one of his guns. He pulled her even closer to his own body, to the point where he could nearly feel her clothes create friction against his own. Then he looked down at her and spoke in a guttural slow tone. "What if I demand more than apology?"

Dianna batted her eyes at him again and then glanced down at his midsection while gesturing that he do the same. She looked back up to see his slow recognition of the vibroblade she held to his torso. The grip on her wrist quickly dissipated while the man stammered some comments that seemed to be a mixture between fear and anger. He was clearly confused and embarrassed by the weapon's sudden materialization.

"I'm sorry hun... but I have a bigger date right now. Why don't you go ahead and move along and forget we ever had any sort of run in, mmkay?" She continued to smile while batting her eyes. She didn't look back as Sootoo's building loomed in the distance.

628. Taking Out the Trash - Raezyr

The two Gamorreans standing guard at the door to the nightclub had nearly torn each other to shreds before other security guards could pull them apart. Later when they had been patched up and questioned, each claimed the other had started the fight by insulting their Matron. In the confusion which had occurred, nobody noticed the two cloaked figures who slipped inside.

Minutes later, using similar tactics, the cloaked figures slipped into the backroom and to the service turbo lift. Later, the guard at the elevator door would vaguely remember allowing two repairmen go to the basement to service the ventilator system, but he was never able to quite recall what they looked like.

The power droid on the maintenance level detected the presence of two unscheduled organic repair entities and assessed the necessity of relaying the information to the central computer, but the organics were already interfacing with the main computer at a terminal and it came to the conlcusion the information would be redundant and therefore not required. A moment later the lowly GNK power droid received the command authorization to activate the overhead shipment receiving access port and admit two more organics attempting to download cargo to the droid's facility.

It slowly made it's way through the various apparatus found in the bowels of the large building owned by a minor Hutt crime lord. Apparatus that provided environment control and various other function necessary to facilitate the proper functioning of such a large facility.

It extended it's rarely used manipulator arm from the front compartment and interfaced with the door's security controls. It took the security program several moments to recognize the droid as it this was a very rare occurrence. Most often, droid's were prohibited from accessing doors such as this one, but the central computer validated the droid had been given the proper commands and relented to it's request.

The big overhead doors slid upward revealing a large cargo skiff already in place and ready to download it's contents. The GNK droid viewed the process with it's optical receptor, then scanned the equipment as was standard procedure. The droid was attempting to upload the data to the central computer, informing it the shipment of weapons and various explosives had arrived, but the centcom was suddenly having trouble finding a record of the shipment even being ordered. It was about to resend the information when the two organic repair units which had been interfacing with the centcom terminal walked in. They conferred with the two organic delivery units for a moment then one of them opened the cargo storage unit's access panel and removed an object which was then pointed at the droid.

The gonk droid recognized the object. It was an ion blaster designed to override and incapacitate a droid. The droid had suffered an ion blast once long ago and it was not a pleasant incident which was stored in it's data banks. It attempted to plead with the organics, but all they heard was a heavily electronic noise vaguely resembling, "Gonk... gonk..." The droid went unexpectedly off-line.

627. Hoth: King's Lair - Trychon

Trychon twirled his backup lightsaber just a few more moments before clipping it to his belt. "So. Um... Nice place you have here. Just moving in?"

Dianna looked at him a little more seriously for a moment before walking past him to grab some records and dump them into one of the nearby containers. "This isn't really a joking matter. The Hutts have us made, and if we don't head out of here they won't be long in trying to get their slimy hands on everything we have."

"You mean they..." Raezyr glared at Trychon. "How could they have found out about the mission? They couldn't have traced it back to you! We never really got our hands on the loot, and the amount we transfered doesn't nearly correspond with the job we pulled. We couldn't have been sold out, nobody could have gained from that, not even Zanz." He spit out the last word with measured hate.

Dianna put her hand on his chestplate. "Calm down, Love. Nobody sold us out, or anything like that. Nobody watches the markets, legal or otherwise, the way the Hutts do. They made an educated guess, and won't take no for an answer anyway." She was prepared to drop the point but could tell that Raezyr was not. She'd pull him aside and talk to him in private if she didn't know that his brother would step in and start pushing the issue either before they made it out of the room or even worse... when he had been left with the crew.

"Listen here, warriors..." She added a small tint of sarcasm just to grab their attention. "I know what you think. We're not just picking up and running away. We don't have a Wookie's chance in a spelling bee of taking out even a small Hutt like this one on Nar Shadaa. Right now, it's a bottomfeeder Hutt with aspirations larger than it's tailend, but if we don't pay her off, she tells some of her established friends."

She looked to the elder Sith to make sure he was listening too. "If we pay them off, we end up slinging grilled gundark patties on some two bit space station, just to make ends meet. Let alone getting back to where we need to be."

She turned back to Raezyr, who had clearly already settled down a bit. "So I've done what a responsible leader does, and made a hard decision that is in the best interest of my organization as well as my people. We're not running. We're relocating until we're forgotten, or in a better position to do something else. There is no other realistic choice."

"Clearly you've thought this through thoroughly, and I apologize for myself and Trych jumping to any conclusions. I'm sorry. Just concerned, that's all." He raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Exactly." Trychon piped in, once again twirling his lightsaber. "You've done what's best. No problem."

Then he grinned. "I really hate moving though..."