Whacked!

“When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality."
- Al Capone

"I don't underrate the cops. But cops can't break a guy's arm to make him talk, and they can't shove his teeth in with the muzzle of a .45 to remind him that you aren't fooling."- Mike Hammer


The Cast
Marasco, da Boss
Zalabas, Devaronian lieutenant
 Vorkat, a Ubese hired gun and pilot
 Garrl Tovorok, a Klatoonian gunrunner
 Amora, Twi’lek hitwoman
 Nebin, the Sullustani slicer,
 Esach, the Rodian black market specialist



"I know Marasco's in there,  and I'm gonna talk to him. If you know what's best for you, you'll get out my way."

I heard the voices from the other room, and then I saw Garrl comin’ through the doorway the hard way. Right behind him was Lieutenant Yima of the TSF in street clothes. She stepped over Garrl, had a seat and put her boots up on my desk.

“You got a lot of guts comin’ in here like that, Lieutenant. The TSF’s jurisdiction ends at that doorway, “ I said gesturing behind her. I motioned Garrl out of the room so we could talk in peace.

“I’m not TSF anymore. I work for myself now.”

“What’s a matter, Yima. Grenn gettin’ to ya? Hows about we put you on the payroll?”

“Cut the small talk, Marasco. Where’s the Exile?”

“What exile? I don’t....”

“Don’t play dumb with me. I don’t want to have to get rough. Where is she?” At this point, she pulled out her blasters.

“Now, that’s not very polite. I offer you my hospitality and this is how you are?”

She didn’t say a word, just looked at me.

“All right, I’ll tell you what you wanna know. Then we talk business.”

“I’m listening,” she said, settling in her chair.

“Now you see, when they say luck be a lady, they mean it.” I said, pouring us a couple of drinks. “They also say it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind. And that's just what happened. She changed her mind, and my luck which usually was pretty good, and had gone bad. And before much longer it would get even worse."

Yima rolled her eyes at me.

"See, I was recruited by Davik Kang on Taris. I know what you’re thinkin’. Darth Malak, the bombardment, right? Nope. I made it out a day ahead of the Sith fleet arriving and ahead of them blasting the planet’s surface into rubble. Now that’s lucky.

Then there’s the assignment on Citadel Station. Word was almost the whole crew, including the Boss, Slusk,  got whacked by some crazy female Jedi. Then she went on to Nar Shaddaa and whacked the whole crew in the refugee sector there. But anyway, I figured what would be the chances of her coming back to Citadel after the busy time she had. About zero to none. So I was lucky there too. Right place at the right time and all.

Then there’s the fact that Slusk was a Quarren, Saquesh and Visquis on Nar Shaddaa were Quarren, and I’m a Quarren. Out of four Quarren Bosses in the Exchange, three of them got whacked, and I’m the fourth. So I’m pretty lucky there too. Either of those times it could have been me, but it wasn’t. I didn’t know how one Jedi could do so much damage, and I didn’t want to find out.

But now, we got a real problem.  The Sith have come and got Telos blockaded. Their fighters are attacking Citadel, and their ground troops have entered the Station. Like Davik on Taris, we’re trapped. So I looked around at my guys and told’em, “Boys,  grab your guns, strap on the armor and get ready to go to war. We're gonna blast our way off that station whatever it takes.” I speak Basic so I was ahead of those other Quarren in that regard too.

With me I had Zalabas, my Devaronian lieutenant, Vorkat, a Ubese hired gun and pilot, Garrl Tovorok, a Klatoonian gunrunner, Amora, the only female in the group and our resident Twi’lek hitwoman,  Nebin, my Sullustani slicer, and finally Esach, my Rodian black market specialist. It was Esach who’d come running in to tell me the news of the Sith. It just figured. Whatever was going on, he was always the first to know whether people were screaming it in the streets or whispering it in some back alley.

I went back to my office and put on my Holy Krath Armor that I’d picked up cheap on Nal Hutta and grabbed my disruptor rifle. I grabbed my pair of Arkanian pistols, and I was as ready as I was going to be. The Sith wanted a fight, and we’d give’em one.

Really when you got right down to it, it was no different than going to war with one of the Hutt clans or some punk street gang like the Black Vulkars on Taris. It didn’t matter why the Sith wanted to mix it up, only that they did. And they would pay for messing with the Exchange. I would see to it, even if they had Jedi with them. See, because while Visquis, Saquesh and Slusk were plenty power hungry, they weren’t exactly the brightest stars in the sky if you know what I mean. I wouldn’t make the same mistakes they did. I wouldn’t underestimate anybody who uses the Force. Had no idea how the Force works. Still don’t for that matter, but it didn’t really matter. Less of course we could recruit some of them into the Exchange. But these Force user types got funny ideas about what’s important in life. Don’t see credits the way we do. Hard to find something they want, something they’ll work for.

It was a short while later I was slapping a clip inside the disruptor rifle, Esach came running back in.

“What now, Esach?”

“Boss, I got two things to tell you. I didn’t have time before, but the last four Rodians who were guarding the door to this complex  were killed by that Jedi.”

“So what? She don’t like Quarren or Rodians? So what’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that she’s right outside our front door, cutting down some Sith troopers.”

“You sure it’s her?”

“Oh yeah, there couldn’t be two like this left.”

This time I wasn’t sure if he knew what he was talkin’ about even though he was usually right. But I grabbed my rifle and headed out into the lobby of the compound. I got there just in time to see her, a Miraluka and an assassin droid walk through the door. Actually walk through what was left of the door. The droid’s repeater was still smoking. The Jedi didn’t look to good, her skin was grey and kind of sick looking. Her eyes were grey too. Almost could have been mistaken for droid eyes.

“The next time someone calls me Jedi, they’ll be lying in a pool of their own blood,” she was telling my crew. Then she looked at me, “You in charge here?”

“Yeah. I’m Marasco.”

“You guys are coming with us. There’s a large group of Sith troopers and Assassins up ahead, and you’re going to help us burn our way through them. Either that or we can leave you all dead right here.”

I saw Amora’s gun hand twitch, but I quickly stepped in front of her before things could get ugly. And then, it was like time came almost to a stop as the heat of the moment hit me. This was the same situation that Visquis, Saquesh and Slusk had been in, and I was about one step from ending up like they did. Any false move on our part, and they’d be sending a new crew to take our place. Assuming, of course, the Republic held out. And we did need the Republic too. Business wouldn’t be too good under the Sith.

“I think we can probably help you out. Let’s go, boys.” I always said that even though there was a girl too. She didn’t mind me saying it.. Didn’t seem to mind much in fact, just wanted to be able to pull triggers.

“Smart move, Marasco. I was beginning to think Quarren weren’t born with the ability to think. You don’t know how many just like you I’ve had to cut down because they thought they could come between me and what I need to do,” she said.

“Actually, I do know. The whole Exchange has heard of you by now.”

“Good. Then I won’t have any trouble out of you. I’m going to be taking the galaxy for myself soon enough.“

None of my crew was stupid enough to laugh at her, cause we all figured she wasn’t right in the head.

“You want to stay on my good side. Now let’s move.” she said.

“Ladies first.”

But she wouldn’t have had it any other way. She and the rest of the group went out into the street where the Sith were wading for us. The Jedi and her crew didn’t hold back, just laid right into them, cutting a swath through the Sith. Now you understand, especially in that day and age, few people got to see a Jedi go to work like that, and it was some sight to see, I’m tellin’ ya. Most of the Sith, it only took one swipe with that lightsaber before they were lying on the ground in one piece or in two. Didn’t seem to matter whether it was a Trooper or one of those Assassins. I’d never seen them before either. Guys in black, or maybe girls, who knows, carrying force pikes and wearing these strange goggles. They didn’t do any better against the Jedi.

The Miraluka was doing the same with a double-ended lightsaber, and the droid was blasting away as fast as the repeater could spit out those blaster bolts. In seconds, it was over. I looked around and saw my crew with the same stunned expressions on their faces that I must have been wearing. None of us had fired so much as a single shot, so much were fixated on the Jedi. But to make at least a little show of it, we made our way amongst the Sith lying there, finishing off a few who weren’t already dead.

“Boss,” it was Zalabas, who’d moved up next to me and was lookin’ worried. “Cleaning out Citadel ain’t gonna be a problem at this rate, but I heard the blind one, the Miraluka sayin’ something about boarding the Sith flagship. You don’t think they’re gonna make us go with, do ya?”

“Hey! Are you guys having a problem keeping up. Should we move slower?” The Jedi was already moving toward the entrance to the shuttle bay. She wasn’t lookin’ none too happy, and she was staring right at me.

“Right behind ya,” I called back. “We just didn’t want anybody sneakin’ up on us from behind.”

“There is a time element here, so hurry up, Marasco!”

We all piled into the shuttle to get  to the Entertainment Module. I finally had a chance to answer Zalabas. “Nah,” I whispered. “They wouldn’t need us for that. We’d just get in the way, slow them down. They’ll cut us loose before that. I’m sure of it.” At least I was pretty sure.

Except when we got to the module, a bunch of Mandalorians were waiting for us.

“Mandalore,” the Jedi said to the leader, a big guy in this metallic armor with hoses coming out of it. “These gentlemen have volunteered to help us board the Ravager.”

“Whoa, lady,” I stopped her right there. “We didn’t sign on for nothin’ like that. This is as far as we go.”

She moved close to me. Normally I didn’t mind if a female did that, but she gave me the shivers. She could make you feel cold on the inside, kind of like there was no point in doin’ anything. “Ohhh,” she purred, “ and here I thought you were going to be reasonable. If I have to leave you here, it’s going to be in pieces. So what do you say? Are you in or what?”

The next thing I knew, we were packed extremely tight on the shuttle heading up into orbit and toward the most drekked up ship I’d ever seen. I’m talkin’ big holes in. There’s no way that thing should have been able to move, but there it was in the center of the Sith fleet surrounded by other Sith warships and fighters running patrols, and the ship’s cannons blasting away at Citadel. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been scrapped, or at least refitted before they took into combat. Either the leader of that ship was dumb as a rock, or just not all the way there.

But we made it into the Ravager's hangar without getting blasted, and the door to the shuttle was barely open before them crazy Mandalorians were jumping out, disruptor rifles blasting away. The Sith in the nearby vicinity didn't know what hit'em, and by the time me and my crew got out there, they were lying on the floor with many holes in their armor. I always said that Sith armor wasn’t worth nothin’. The Mandalorians proved it, though I’d hate to get on their bad side, if you know what I mean.

I saw the Jedi and the Mandalorian leader huddled up, so I stepped up close. “So what’s the plan, J...”

One of her eyebrows went up in a none too friendly way.

“I mean lady, miss, whatta you want me to call you?”

She looked at me funny. “Why don’t you call me ‘da boss’?”

A Jedi with a sense of humor.

“Okay, Boss. “What’s the plan?”

“It quite simple actually. My team and I are going to kill the Sith Lord on this ship and then blow it up with proton cores. You and your people get to stay here with the Mandalorians and make sure our exit is clear. Got it?”

“Yeah, Boss. Ain’t no Sith gonna get past us? The shuttle will be waitin’ when you get back.”

“It had better be.” And with that, she and the Mandalorian leader and the Miraluka left. It was just us and the other Mandalorians.

“So, uh, any of you boys lookin’ for a job?”

They just stared at me for a minute through those strange visors of theirs.

That’s when the blaster fire started, a squad of Sith elite troopers in their red armor appeared down the corridor moving toward us. Me and my guys scrambled for cover, while the Mandalorians just sort of lined up and started returning their fire. But these Sith weren’t pushovers like the ones we’d seen on the station. The ones in the rear started throwing grenades our way. Only then did the Mandalorians take cover. Meanwhile, my guys were letting them have it. I saw Amora score a couple of headshots, saw the Mandalorians drop a few more, and pretty soon the Sith were falling back. A couple of Mandalorians activated their stealth generators and pretty soon they’d flanked the Sith and were hitting them from behind. The Sith didn’t last long after that.

“Hey Zalabas, we got any of those stealth generators?”

“No, Boss.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, Boss.”

“When this all over with, tell Esach to see if he can make a deal with those Mandalorians for some.”

“Okay, Boss.”

But the Mandalorians weren’t the only ones with stealth generators. Right in the middle of all of us, a group of Sith Assassins appeared out of nowhere, and another of squad of Sith troopers began firing on us. Apparently they weren’t none too worried about hitting their pals. Most of the Mandalorians drew their vibroblades and started to go toe-to-toe with the Assassin. Meanwhile, I noticed a Sith officer with this squad of troopers. The officer pulled out a thermal detonator and rolled it down the hallway. I couldn't believe the guy was gonna blow up his own guys, but we didn't have time to think about it. Me and my guys ducked into a side passageway and hit the ground.. An instant later, the detonator went off. The explosion was extra loud in that confined space. The next thing we knew, the ceiling had caved in on that corridor. We didn't get to see what happened to the Mandalorians, but me and my guys were cut off from the shuttle. No way to get back, and this on a ship that was about to blown to pieces. Not good.

Nobody was injured in the blast, so I told everybody to pick up their weapons and follow me. "Boys, we're gonna find a way of this ship."

I led the way down the corridor. We found a lot of storage rooms in, but no Sith in this part of the ship. Finally we reached a terminal. “Nebin. Do your magic.”

But he couldn’t slice it. “Boss, these aren’t like any Sith codes I’ve seen before. It’s like a different language.”

“Nebin, this is gonna cost you,”  I told him.

So we kept moving, eyes peeled for any sign of the enemy. Or an escape pod. Or even another terminal for Nebin to try to slice. I was starting to think we were gonna get real unlucky, when we spotted a three man Sith patrol up ahead. They just stood there staring off into the distance, barely moving.

They hadn't noticed us yet, so I pulled everybody off to one side. "Everybody set your blasters on stun and ready your concussion grenades if you got'em. We're gonna take'em alive. That armor might come in handy. Also these guys are gonna tell us where the hangar is.”

When everybody was ready, several of my guys threw their grenades toward the Sith, and we rushed them with our blasters ready. The grenades went off just in front of, and those troopers were bouncing around that corridor like kids’ toys. The armor was a little dinged up, but still usable. So Amora, Vorkat and Garrl each put on a suit. The troopers were out and looked like they had the Iridonian plague, but woke up with soon enough.

“You guys are gonna tell me what I want to know. Where’s the hangar?”

“We ain’t tellin’ you nothin’,” one of them said, giving a warning glance to the other two.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah, that’s so.”

So we dragged the three of them into one of the storage rooms and shut the door behind us.

“Zalabas, help him with his memory.”

He found a hydrospanner lying around and started going to work on the guy.

After Zalabas had a chance to rearrange the guy’s face, I pressed the barrel of my disruptor rifle against the forehead of one of the others. “Now you’re gonna tell me what I want to know, otherwise I’m gonna start shooting off parts of you that you probably figure you need. Understand? Where’s the hangar?”

He wouldn’t speak so I slapped with the barrel of the gun. He spit out some blood.

“Where is it?”

“Grokk you!”

“Oh yeah?” I slapped him again, and then drove the butt of the rifle into his forehead knocking him hard to the ground. Then I moved on to the third one. His eyes had gotten real bigger watching what we did to the other two.

“Now don’t be stupid. Tell me what I want to know or I’ll make the worst mess of you.”

He was more cooperative. A short while later we were on our way to the turbolift that would take us to the hangar deck. But only after Amora put a blaster shot into each of their heads. We got to the turbolift, and Zalabas stopped us there.

“What?”

“Boss, we got to make this look good. We got three Sith here and four aliens.”

I knew what he was thinking. “Get out the stun cuffs.”
 
Esach, Zalabas, Nebin and I each put on a pair and walked in front of the others like we were prisoners. We got in the turbolift and rode it down to the hangar level. But when the doors opened there was a real Sith Lieutenant there.

“Where are you taking this thing?” he asked Vorkat.

“Prisoner transfer from cellblock 1138,” Vorkat told him.

“I wasn’t notified. I’ll have to clear it.” He turned away from the turbolift and toward a terminal nearby. But he never made it that far.

Vorkat stepped forward and cracked him in the skull from behind with the butt of his disruptor rifle. The Lieutenant took a hard tumble to the ground, and then my guys stashed him in a nearby storage room.

And after an agonizingly long passage, we finally made it to the hangar. There was an assault shuttle just returning, apparently with some wounded from the station. But they pulled the guys off and instead of them being taken to the infirmary, some other Sith officer tells them they failed and then kills them, one by one. Not the way you build loyalty, if you know what I mean. But he doesn’t kill them with a blaster. No, he pulls out a lightsaber and stabs them all. Then he goes nuts, just flies off the handle and stalks out of there. So me and my crew give this guy plenty of space, and eventually he disappears out of sight down the corridor. We head into the hangar. The remaining ground crew don’t put up much of a fight, and we finally make it to the shuttle.”

“Let me guess, “ Yima says, “You guys make it out of there in the nick of time just before the Ravager explodes into a giant fireball. That right?”

“Well, no. Actually it didn’t explode until after we’d made it back to Telos. I didn’t see the Jedi again after that. What do you want her for anyway? She’s out of your league, Yima.”

“Onasi wants her. I don’t know why, but he went to Grenn, and Grenn came to me.” She took her feet off my desk and left her half empty drink on it. “Thanks for the drink. See how easy that was?”

“Sure you don’t want to come work for me?” I asked her.

“I’d rather shovel all the bantha fodder on Tatooine,” she said, pulling her hat down. Then she left.

It was only a short while after he left, that I was sitting at my desk looking over some numbers when suddenly I felt deathly chill. I looked up and there was the Jedi. I had to force down a scream.

She smiled at me.

“Who was that?”

“That was the former Lieutenant Yima.”

“What you’d tell her?” she wanted to know, staring at me with those dull grey eyes.

“Nothin’. Told her you were gone.”

“Good boy,” she said. “With my help you’re gonna be the next leader of Exchange. Don’t screw it up, Marasco.”

“Yeah, Boss.”

And the next thing I knew, she was gone. I’d heard Exchange people talk about making deals with the Sith and it being a bad idea and all, but I thought they were just scared. Now I knew why.”