I stopped as I reached the door, the grey metal dusted and dented over its long years of service, above hung a glowing sign like most that littered the world.
I looked to my wrist.
It was about time.
Hitting the button to the side it let out the familiar wish as it retracted to the side and I stepped into the cacophony of sound held behind.
The music bleared in my ears, sensual and alluring, as I caught sight of the multiple dancers as they gyrated on their poles.
I think my pants shrunk a little when I walked into the strip bar, but that might just be my imagination. Scanning the room quickly with my eyes, I scratched my still growing beard with affection as I finally found my target.
Making my way to the bar I scanned their drinks before finally settling on some dark blue milk. Not enough kick if you asked me, not like a good Antakarian fire dancer glass, but 'she' would get pretty made if I grabbed one of those.
Especially on Nar Shaddaa.
Taking my drink and saddling up next to my contact I took him in. He was duros, so like any of their race a nice blue color. He had a good amount of height, his gear looked passable and he also had a scar over his right eye.
A bit cliché but meh, who was I to talk about cliché.
I was wearing my standard set of gear, combat boots, slightly armored pants, shirt and jacket all a mix of greys, browns and blacks. I wanted to take my duster coat out, but it was a little too flashy on Nar Shaddaa.
Who knows, I might have gotten shot in the back because of how much it cost...
Still one of my favorite gifts.
Still have no clue where Dae got the money though, we had cleared a lot of jobs. But that duster was worth quite a few creds...
But back to the contact.
He had contacted me over the holo-net after I shopped around for information on what I wanted. Nothing too conspicuous, just looking for a certain object, pretty rare to find them. Well ones that aren't controlled by the space wizards. You could never be too certain about what you put on the boards, or the information you would get.
But it was worth a shot.
After getting his details though, we had vetted him, he seemed to be a good info broker, plus the price wasn't too bad.
It was actually a little too low....
Ohh and there goes the 'spark' again.... shit I'll owe her 20 creds if this goes south.
All I had to do was trade him the money, grab my info and get out of here and I was in the clear.
Come-on you stupid red eyed bastard make this easy for me.
My eyes scanned the room again looking for anything out of place, but in a club like this it was hard to tell who was friend or foe. Everyone, if they had a few brain cells didn't go anywhere on this planet without a weapon, meaning everyone in here was packing heat.
Heck the dancers were likely to take you to a private room and shiv you if they saw you had no weapon. Or if you were stupid enough to flash too much cash around here.
I took note of a few people around the room, but I will admit my eyes were draw quite a few times to the dancers.
Twi'leks, Zeltrons, Humans, Togruta you name it this place seemed to have it.... wait was that a kriffing female Wookie?!
What the Sith spit..... I don't want to even no.... no, no, no.
Turning back to my drink and taking a few small sips, I waited for the duros to speak first, but he didn't say anything, so I also kept quite as we watched the current girl before us.
It was a Zeltron, looked to be in her late 20's, meaning she was getting a bit too old for this job, well by Nar Shadaa standards. Anyways... That purple/pink skin sure is fascinating.... as well as the hips and ass and ohhh... No don't get distracted!
"You have the Peggats?"
His words slipped out as the dancer before us finally stopped and changed, I gave her a few peggats for a good performance. I replied a bit slower than I should have when I replied, my eyes watching the Zeltron leave, that ass...
"You got the info?"
Out of the side of my eye I just caught him giving me a disgruntled look at the question before he nodded. Patting his gauntlet that doubled as a slicer and minicomputer, a small data chip popped out and fell into his waiting hand. Placing it on the table he gave me a look before slowly sliding it over.
I gave him a long look as well before I slowly reached forward and grabbed it, bringing it towards my own wrists, I needed to look at a little of the data before payment. Or that's what we agreed on. Because of that he didn't say anything as our new dancer arrived.
It was a Twi'lek in their late teens, too young to be a stripper one would think but on Nar Shadaa it was more likely that they had been working for a few years.
They really started them young here, especially if they were pretty.
Why did I come here again?
Right I needed this info, I didn't have much time left...
The Twi'lek had a stacked body; a generous chest line, narrow hips and an ass a man wouldn't mind suffocating under, she was the personification of hourglass figure. Add on her white like skin, something exotic and rare for their species, her tight lithe body with muscles that could just be seen and I could instantly see why my info broker had suddenly gone bug eyed and was almost drooling as she sauntered up to the pole and began to twirl about, her lekku flowing a dancing as she moved.
His eyes lit up and his mind went else were as I inserted the chip in to my wrist pad and had a quick look over the info.
I furrowed my brows, as I caught sight of my prize, was this what I had been looking for?
I wasn't too sure myself; I was never one to go with the whole mystic mumbo jumbo that the Jedi and Sith practiced, but it looked like this was what I had been looking for, especially when the spark seemed to give me a quick nod that this was what I needed.
With this Dae could finally start learning properly, I wouldn't be holding her back anymore...
My eyes flickered to the Twi'lek before us before I reached down for the small case, I had brought in.
"Your Peggats."
Placing the case on the table I finished my drink and prepared to leave when the brokers hand raised up.
"You leaving already?"
I gave him a quick look, before a wry smile.
"Sorry, my co-pilot really likes to nag me about staying out late, I have to get back or I'll be sleeping in the cargo hold. SOOOOO if you'll excuse me..."
The scrapping of chairs around our own almost....almost made me sigh as a group of Weeqay, Duros and Rodian's all stood up facing my direction, hands hovering over their hips. None of the other patrons in the place blinked an eye and kept going with their own business, on a planet like this, bar fights, deaths and killing were pretty normal.
If you didn't stick your nose into whatever was going on, you were good. Though who ever caused the mess would have to pay of the establishment, didn't want to piss off one of the syndicates running the place.
I finally couldn't help it as I sat back down with a defeated sigh.
Why.
Every damn time.... why?
The last 5 times I've been on this bantha hole of a planet something has to happen!
I'm never coming back to this planet! I mean it this time!
I could see as the Duros, who's eyes were still locked onto our dancer, smiled. It was a self-satisfying smirk, one that really grated at me.
I felt the spark go off again as to warm me of danger, but I mean.
I already knew I was in danger damnit!
Tell me something useful!!!!
Turning to the man that had just double crossed me I rested back with a defeated look.
"Like, do we have to do this? I haven't met you before. Why would you double cross me? Not like I'm rich, I'm just a smuggler."
I mean... I was actually confused.
I may have caused a few ruckuses over the years, but I hadn't been put up for bounty, I stayed off nearly every radar for the crime syndicates if I could help it, why the hell does he want to kill me....
I mean he could just be a greedy bastard that wants to sell the info again....
No that makes no sense, he can copy the info and double deal.
Maliciouse bastard that just wants to kill me?
Maybe, but does he need this many guys.... unless.....
"I'm an info broker Mr Denar and I recently came into the knowledge of some information that could potentially make me rich... filthy rich."
I had a sinking feeling in my gut as I leaned back. Our dancer had moved down from her pole, already giving the man a small type of sensual lap dance as he talked. I could tell he was distracted, but his words got across.
"I heard you're co-pilot as you call them, is a rare breed of Twi'lek. She's rare enough that I can make a rich fortune off selling her to the highest bidder. I also heard that she was your slave."
I could only face palm as the satisfied smirk turned greedy.
"She really doesn't like being called that... you know salve... she likes the term partner, co-pilot, badass you get the gist."
He gave me back a flat stare finally looking away from the dancer, something I really don't think he should have done.
"I don't care what the pyjak slut wants to be called. She is a slave! A profitable one. So here's what's going to happen, Denar. You're going to order the bitch to come down here, hand over whatever inhibiter chip, or controls you have for them and then I might think about letting you go."
I sat there in silence for a minute his words washing over me as his goons drew closer. Their hands were still hovering over their weapons, but I didn't care about that.
"You heard him, I don't think I owe you 20 creds, the only reason shit went down this time was because of you."
*Oooff* *Urgh* *Eiiiiii*
"Ohh please! The bet was something like this was going to happen. It doesn't matter what the reason is!"
A seductive but also somehow cold and deadly voice replied in exasperation as the Twi'lek dancer sprang into action. Jabbing forward with her arm, her fist landed squarely in the Duros's chest as he puffed out all his air, before a knife strike hit his throat, choaking him and finally a knee jammed into his groin.
As he choaked on air and squalled in pain, I fell back on my own chair and pulled my pistols from their holsters. The goons around were confused for a few moments at the sudden turn, but that was all the time we needed.
Springing into action quickly I started to unload into the 4 guys to the right, taking accurate shots at their heads and bodies.
My weapons just powerful enough to get through their minimally armored jackets.
"Yeah but this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for you!"
I wasn't the best shooter out there, but in close quarters, and with the sparks help it wasn't too hard to fire off those quick shots.
Just beside me having delivered the knife strike Dae had already grabbed the Duros's blaster and was unloading into the rest of them.
"Ohh cry me a river, then pony up after we take out these guys!"
She was much quicker and better than me as she rolled behind the now tipped over table and started taking pot shots at our adversaries, quickly taking them down, something that irked me only slightly.... ok a lot.
Funnily enough, still no one in the club reacted as we unloaded into the sorry goons, we spent only 40 seconds cleaning up the whole crew before the blaster fire finally stopped.
Still gasping for air the Duros looked at us in fear as we came out from behind the table. We had left him to last specifically.
Dae to the side was looking coldly as the guy, I couldn't blame her really. He was just talking about selling her into slavery.
Her cold eyes only seemed to make him even more afraid as he fell backwards off his chair and crawled backwards away from us. He couldn't get far coughing and spluttering for air though. He tried to say something as we reached and towered over him.
Dae steadied his own blaster at his head, but I held out my hand and grabbed it. She gave me a look as I slowly tilted it down. Crouching before the dirt bag who tried to double cross me, I gave him a pitying look as he started to realize that there was no way he was walking out of here alive.
Jamming my pistol right up to his chest, right over his heart, leaving no room for him to survive, his hands quickly clamped down and held it tight, trying to move it away, his eyes begging.
I just shook my head.
"What's the saying... if you mess with the Togruta, watch out for the fangs.... or was that Kath hound?..."
He gave me a look at that, the last look he would ever give as I pulled the trigger.
The light quickly left his eyes as his hands slackened, his body turning limp.
I didn't like doing such things, but some things had to be done in this line of work.
I stood back up and looked over at Dae as she watched me. Her eyes were soft as I looked back, she didn't like that I had to do such things.
It was why she had tried to do it herself.
But there was a difference between killing people in a fight and killing in cold blood. I hadn't let her do that yet.
I may be pretty shit at raising a kid, but I did have some standards.
I wasn't about to let her take that burden...yet.
It looked like she wanted to say something, but I gave her a look.
We'd talk when we got back to the ship.
Giving me a nod, her eyes turned cold once more, a stark contrast to the Twi'lek dancer that had appeared just a minute beforehand, eyes seductive, hips swaying to the beat. She grabbed the discarded case of Peggats as we walked towards the exit. Passing the bar on the way out she dropped the case on the table top. It was the charge for causing a scene and should be more than enough to walk out of here no trouble.
We stopped for a second as the Chiss bartender opened the case and looked at the amount inside. He thought about it for a few moments and nodded, we quickly made our way out.
It was never good good for a Twi'lek to be out in Nar Shadaa, not when you looked like Dae, I had learnt that the hard way, the first time I came to this shit hole.
We'd be back on the ship in 30 minutes, off this god forsaken planet in less than an hour if we do things right and away from this bantha hole of a system in a few hours.
Ohh and I would have to pay up the 20 creds pretty soon after clearing the system....
Kriffing hell!
Notes:
This chapter was a little longer than I thought it was going to be, but I didn't want to split it up, I didn't think it would make sense if I did that.
Yes, as you can see, I did a time skip. I could have gone with the whole what happens when the Twi'lek wakes up ect. But I thought this would be a better way of doing it.
Gives them a little history that I can explore and flesh out. I can do flash backs, as well as skip tedious parts. If I had done the talk with the twi'lek I would have still had to do a time skip at some point.
More will be explained as chapters go on, like how long it has been, what Dae's full name really is, what is their dynamic etc.
I hope you guys enjoy where this is going.
Yes a lot of new content for people... unless you're a pat reon!