The Rebel Faction

* A combination history thread and takeover of Smugglers Run, and several other shadowports that shall be titled Infinity base, Shadow Base, and Tomb Base. In addition, it will also be the taking/stealing/capture of 9 Victory Star Destroyers, several smaller ships, and the bringing of the Errant Venture under the Smugger Alliance's control. (All events will take place in the past).

Yes. I know the beginning's a repost of (*) (which I actually forgot to write the title for), which itself is a repost of A Tale of Two Smuggler's beginning. But I'm not happy with where the former is going, and so I'll redo it after the last two posts.

In a Mos Eisley Spaceport...
"Son of a Bitch!" Kach screamed, throwing down the hydrospanner. "This damned thing won't go on!"

"What is it?" Jesh shouted distantly from inside the ship.

"The Compensators for the Tractor Beam. I'm trying to set it so I can reverse the polarity, but the damn Compensators won't hook up to the generator anymore. We'd need an expert programmer to fix this, somebody too expensive for us to hire."

"That bad, huh?"

But of course Jesh knew how bad it was. They had both known the risks to adding an optional setting to reverse the Tractor Beams polarity and both had decided to go for it. It was just, that now, the damn thing wouldn't work. Sure, they still had the other one, but the rear Tractor Beam couldn't cover the front or flanks of the ship.

Kach pulled himself out from the cramped maitinence hatchway. He had been down their two hours with nothing to show, and on top of that while pulling himself up he pinched a nerve in his neck.

"Son of a Bitch!" he cried out, grimacing from the sudden pain.

"What now?" Jesh asked, emerging from his cramped "room" on the ships Starboard side. In his hand was a Plasma Torch, the source of an ozonish kind of smell that began circulating around the central hallway. "Well, what?"

"Ah, nothing. Just disappointed. All that time spent for nothing."

"Yeah, well, you know... Hey where you going?" he asked. Kach had begun walking down the ships access ramp.

"I don't really know where, but I do know what. I'm getting a drink."

Kach could see from all the way across the bar that the bond shared between the Devronian male and Twi'lek female was true love likely to last until they died; but of course, by true love he meant a one night stand, and by likely to last until they died, he meant until the alcohol wore off.

Honestly, he didn't understand why some people (or near people, or aliens) liked to sleep with members of other species. It was a disgusting though, but obviously it had to turn them on, and give them the satisfaction they desired, or they wouldn't do it.

Ugh. It should probably be banned. Diseases jumped between species all the time because of disgusting practices like that, and these diseases killed billions of sentients per year.

But then again, who was he to judge?

Presently, another patron of the bar, a short, stocky human with a face so scratched up it seemed like one big scab, and whipped out a vibroshiv. The Devaronian, either so inebriated or distracted by his new partner, didn't notice, and promptly received a knife to the back of the head.

The human was obviously too drunk to remember, or just plain didn't know, that Devaronian's hearts were in the lower back, not the standard human position the assailant had stabbed.

Howling with pain, the Devaronian spun around and whipped out his own shiv from his boot, a long, bloody, and deep gash now present in his back, probably causing some difficulty breathing, since the shot would have doubtlessly penetrated the alien's single large lung, but not immediately fatal. (Of course, the injury might be, however, to the human who had inflicted it and incited the creature's rage.

All eyes were now on them, all conversations postponed. Chalmun was running around the bar to come out and stop the fight, but that would take a handful of seconds, and a handful of seconds was all it would take to be over.

With another howl, this one of anger, the Devaronian struck, not with the shiv in his left hand, but lashing out with his fists, stupidly dropping his knife. Just as he was about to grab the poor human's neck, however, he stupidly tripped over himself and fell flat on his face.

Faster than a pack of Howlrunners onto a lone Kamarian, the human was onto him, stabbing and striking and even biting, anything to keep his foe down. That one gash became two, and the two, four. And in as many seconds as it took to read this line, the Devaronian, caught in a position he couldn't fight back in, was a bloody mess.

Without a seconds hesitation, before the brute Chalmun reached him and tore him limb from limb for the mess he'd caused and the likelihood one of the local gangs would come check out what had happened, the human grabbed the garb of the Twi'lek that just moments before was following out the Devaronian, and pulled her towards the door. She screamed and tried to pull back, but he was larger than her and, instead of bothering trying to pull her, he picked her up like a groom would his new bride and headed towards the exit.

Disgusted, Kach pulled out his blaster and moved towards the door.

At the sound of his name coming from this apparent stranger's lips, the man jumped back and shot very nearly to his feet and his eyes widened. For a moment he just stared at the man in front of him, his face pale and hand on the butt of his holstered blaster. For a moment he eyed Kach, who was now sitting across from him in the booth suspiciously before recognition kicked in.

"Thorton?" he asked, his voice becoming excited.

"Indeed it is I," Kach replied. He hadn't spent much time hanging out with Zak back in the day; his brief period in the Howlrunners had been just that- brief.

For a few moment Zak looked him over and sized Kach up, shifting positions to lean back more on the padded booth's seat.

"I had heard that there was an expert smuggler here, one of the best. But I never expected it to be you." His voice was calm and relaxed.

"We all surprise a few people in our lifetimes," Kach replied, leaning forward and letting through some of the smuggler brashness he'd picked up over the years.

Both men looked at each other tensly for a moment, and then a smile appeared on both their faces, glad to get the traditional smuggler-making-things-difficult-before-business out of the way so they could speak freely.

"Thorton, how you been?" he said, his voice now cheerful. "Why, I haven't seen you since that time you about got your head blown off."

"That was Rex who nearly lost his head. I was the one who froze and nearly got strangled."

Zak put on an expression as if he was deep in thought. "No, I think you were the one who about got your head shot off, and Rex was the one who frozen and nearly got strangled."

"I was the one it happened to, I would know, I'd think."

Zak smirked and shook his head slightly. "You haven't changed a bit since I last saw you.

"Perhaps. But perhaps not. But talk is cheap, it doesn't make me any money. What can I do for you?"

"Come now, is it really necessary that we rush things?"

"Yes," Kach said, "I believe it is. I don't like this rock one bit, and don't want to stay on it one second longer than I must."

That pried a laugh out of Zak. "Indeed. Well, if we must get on to business," he hesitated for a moment, "I am here on Tatooine representing a small Triffis crime lord. I need you to fly a shipload of cargo from here back to Triffis."

"What of?"

"Do smugglers normally pry into the contents of their cargo's?" Zak replied sharply.

"This one does," Kach retorted, "I don't carry anything hotter than regular glitterstim."

"If you must know, the cargo's made up of carvings, sculptures and jewelry found in the excavations of that ancient city in the dune sea that's been so hyped lately around the city."

"I've heard of it," Kach said, slipping back into his usual neutral tone.

"They were all, of course, illegally taken from the excavations, but since nobody off this world gives a damn about this place anyway, we expect nobody to bother you. Our main concern is avoiding tariffs at the boarder crossings- there's nearly four on the way and the cargo is rather valuable and they could add up to as much as 30%, a hefty chunk out of our profits."

"And that's where I come in," Kach said. "How much is this cargo worth?"

"Approximately..." Zak thought for a moment. "If we're careful to get only the best prices and take our time selling it, we could get perhaps two million credits off the lot."

Kach knew that this price was heavily reduced from even low figures for what they could get, and Kach didn't want to play that game. "It's probably valued at about three mil, so at my standard 15% rate..." he thought for a moment, "It comes out to about 450 grand, all up front"

Zak winced, that was a lot of money, but then again, they were saving approximately the same amount.

Besides, it wasn't his money he was dealing with, it was his bosses.

"Who's on your tail?" Kach asked. "You look nervous?"

Zak looked him over again. "Can I trust you, Kach?"

"Yeah," he replied, "but only as long as your pocketbooks holds out. I owe you nothing and you owe me nothing, and that's the way I like it."

"Have you ever heard of hunter saboteurs?"

"I might have," Kach replied suspiciously.

"They give hunted men passage between systems and protect them from bounty hunters, and in exchange they pay an exuberant amount of credits."

"I've been known to give friends with bounty hunters on their tail's a lift from time to time."

Kach leaned towards Zak. "What have you done that you need my help?" he asked.

Zak looked over his left shoulder to the mingling patrons in the center and at the bar. "I've got two bodyguards in the cantina, assigned to me for my protection. You mustn't speak too loud."

"I already picked them out a while ago. They're doing a good job mingling, but they keep shooting glances over here." His voice was softer but more tense.

"Yes, that would be them. But anyway, I've simply been skimming some credits off the top of all the deals I've been seeing through. But I think they're on to me now. As soon as I close this deal, and you've taken off, I'm sure they'll take me out to the desert and... dispose of me.

"Take me with you Kach. I don't have any money, but we can split the cargo between us. We'd be rich. It doesn't matter where you go, just get me away from them. The only important thing is that I don't get caught."

Kach looked at him, thinking about the deal. That was a hell of a lot of money.

"I want seventy-five percent, no less."

Zak nodded.

"And I want you to clean out whatever credit account you're drawing on before we go, too. We'll split that money even between us."

Zak nodded again.

"And another thing. I don't want any bounty hunters on my tail after this. I'm Captain Zek Thula of the Twilight Fury. I've got papers and codes to match that, if your guards want to see some ID. And that's how I'm registered for the hanger.

"Go tell your bosses about the deal. Then transfer the credits into this account," Kach said, sliding a credit chip that would allow deposits into one of his many dummy accounts, from which he would wire the money to his real one.

"Bring the cargo and your two goons there to bay 98 in one hour."

And with that, he stepped back to the cantina's rear entrance and let himself out, making sure that no one was following him.