#DIY: Cause Nobody Will Do It For You

2 years prior to The Force Awakens...
A persistent and interactive galaxy set shortly before the events of Episode VII

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Mir
KING OF STRONG STYLE
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#DIY: Cause Nobody Will Do It For You

Post by Mir »

The cantina was smoky, filled with t’bacc smoke that wafted through, clogging the noses of the patrons, and making vision somewhat difficult. Not that they seemed to care. They were ones smoking after all. There was a dull roar, a pervasive level of conversation that slid through the ears of those in the bar. A man sitting in a booth slid his fingers over the table, feeling the surface of the table and the bruises it had taken over the years. Moisture touched his fingers as he took his mug into his hands and took a sip of the locally brewed alcohol.

Jahni LeRae was a man who enjoyed simple things. Like a well brewed beer. This was one of those and he took another long pull. The man across from him was speaking and Jahni was listening intently. They'd already been here for about ten minutes, and the pitch was almost over.

“Like I said, you two won that tournament.” The man across from him said. “There were many bounty hunters, many mercenaries who competed. But you two, you showed the viciousness that we need for this. You showed the tenacity, the heart. It was like you two had hearts of metal, of...chrome.”

“I appreciate that." Jahni replied, with a head nod. He shifted slightly in the booth, his body still sore from the tournament. The fight had only concluded a month or so ago. But the pain was still with him. Suffice to say, the fighting had been particularly bad. He remembered when he and Tommaso had squared off against the shock boxer team. His teeth had been chattering for days after that match. "I appreciate it." He repeated. "Unfortunately, from what I know, it was a one-time thing. I don’t know if Tommaso is willing to work with me again. It’s one thing to fight people in a cage. It’s something else to go after a bounty together. Especially when you haven't told me anything about what the job is.” He said.

“I'm here to try to make sure that you're willing to work with Tommaso again. So...you’re willing.” The man said, pointing at Jahni. “Is that what I’m to understand?” He asked, the look on his face eager.

Jahni wasn't sure what the ask was, besides working with Tommaso again. But it was clear that whatever this was, it was important to the man.

“You can go back to your Regal ruler and tell him that I am willing.” Jahni said.

“Well, I’d rather have an answer from the both of you. Luckily for me, I figured you'd be the easier to convince so I thought to talk to you first.” The man said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his communications device. He tapped a few buttons and Jahni looked up, waiting. He had a good vantage point of the main entrance to the cantina and he watched the door swing open, almost as if it had been kicked open. After years being a mercenary, Jahni knew how to pick his spots and he knew where to be in a building to get the best line of sight.

He watched the bear of a man stride through the cantina. The self-assurance permeated him, oozing off of him. It was clearly thicker than the smoke pervading the room.

“Tommaso.” Jahni said as the newcomer slid into the booth, sitting across from him. “You haven’t spent your share of the money we won yet, have you?” He asked, with a smile.
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Shaggy
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Re: #DIY: Cause Nobody Will Do It For You

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"Nope. The armor is still good and I had enough spare parts to fix the gun. So, all in all I made out really well. Just did finish my mini vacation. Those bruises are almost gone thanks in part to the Twil'lek with her magic hands." He took a deep breath before starting again. "Besides I want to get to the point where I only take the jobs that I want to, not that I NEED to."

Tommaso put his gloved finger in the air and the waitress looked at him. He then pointed down toward Jahni's beer and then held up two more fingers. The human female nodded her head and turned around to counter to grab the drinks. He took off his gloves and slipped his light jacket off his shoulders revealing his snub nosed pistol hanging from a shoulder harness and another blaster on his hip. There was no use in hiding what he carried. It gave others a slight pause before talking to him and also kept another type of crowd thinking twice before they tried to pull something.

Like Jahni, his back was closest to the wall. The booth was in the far back corner of the bar with two hard walls. Jahni picked the perfect spot to sit at. Both would be covered from behind while they could keep steady watch on the doors. His eyes conditioned to scan the crowd for possible threats but they stopped once the waitress dropped the two beers on the table. She placed one in front of him and started to move the second one, "No darlin' both stay right here." He smiled through his full beard and winked at her while dropping some extra credits on the table. The waitresses eyes grew large when she saw the amount that was before her but hesitated to reach for it.

"Go a head, it's yours." Tamasso said with a smile and she scooped it up with a huge smile. Jahni just shook his head.

"And here I thought I was good looking one?"

Tomasso drained on of the beers in front of him and smiled as he put the glass down. "Only in your head my friend, only in your head." He wiped his mouth and asked
"Now, what is this amazing, once in a lifetime, deal you have for me?"
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Mir
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Re: #DIY: Cause Nobody Will Do It For You

Post by Mir »

“The two of you worked incredibly well together during the tournament, incredibly.”  The man said, looking between the two men.  He knew that they both had egos and both had their pride.  Getting them to work together on a longer term project such as the one he had to pitch to them was going to be difficult.

“Byron, you don’t need to flatter us.  We know we’re good.”  Tommaso replied, giving Jahni a smirk that the other shot right back. “Get to the point.”  He added as he continued to drink.  “Time is money."

“Right, yes.  Our king, Limilaw Agrel, wishes to hire the two of you to work together as a team once more.”  Byron said.  “Not for another tournament of champions, no.  This is for an actual bounty job.  There are problems in our system, many problems.  As you know, the Nixt system is comprised of three planets that can sustain life.  Nelios, the capital of the system, has its connections with the other two planets, Xer and Tyrus, through the Full Sail transit system.  Recently, however, we’ve been having vandals attack, damaging the safety and security of our citizens.”  Byron said.

Jahni looked over at Tommaso and then back at Byron.  “This is the three way commuter lanes you have set up between the three planets?”  He asked and Byron indicated that Jahni was correct.  “I saw those when I first got to Nelios before the tournament started.  If I remember what I was told about them, those are just shipping lanes, how are they attacking shipping lanes without it being obvious?”

Byron nodded, understanding the confusion.  “The Full Sail system works because of the checkpoints.  This is where we scan a lot of the vessels for their cargo, to save time down on the ground.  We’re one of the New Republic’s largest manufacturing centers.  Our companies have contracts with multi system conglomerates as well as the New Republic military and other system governments.”  Byron said, knocking one of his knuckles against the table.  "We can’t afford to have any of those check points attacked and compromised.”

Tommaso shook his head, as he finished the first of his beers.  He leaned back in the booth, and held his hands up.  This was an interesting problem, but it wasn’t one that Tommaso was sure fell under either his or Jahni’s purview.  “Unless you want me and Jahni to stake out one of these processing centers, I’m not sure how we can help you.”  He said.  “We’re good on the ground, and good with blasters.  But unless Jahni over there got a hot hand with a stick, we’re not exactly the guys you call in for problems involving ships.”

“I’ve been known to have a hot hand.”  Jahni said, with a smile.

“Easy there, fella.”  Tommaso turned back to Byron.  “We can stake out one of those processing center checkpoint things, but unless there’s some pattern in how these people hit your checkpoints, we have no way of knowing we’re in the right place at the right time."

“Well, now we turn to the more pressing matters.  We’ve been getting multiple reports of an increase in foreclosures and defaults on debts around our system.  The financials of the citizens of the system have been strong for some time, ever since we got an influx of cash from the MUIR that helped stabilize the credit.  They’re the ones who helped design and build the Full Sail system.”

“I’m not an economist.”  Jahni said, as he looked over at the waitress to order another drink, beckoning her towards their booth.  “What’s the point?”  He asked.  “What’s the connection?”

The man from the Nixt government waited until Jahni had placed his order and the drink had arrived to continue.  The last thing he wanted was for anyone to overhear what they were talking about.  They weren’t on Nelios, Xer, or Tyrus, but they were close to the Nixt system.  He knew that the success of the Nixt system had caused many of their neighbors to be rather jealous.  The system was part of a big trade route, but had developed itself into one of the premier stopping points for shipping and commercial cargo.  Anyone of the systems nearby would be more than willing to profit off of Nixt’s problems.

“We didn’t think there was one, until one of the people who had a foreclosure was found dead in his home, from an apparently self-inflicted blaster wound.”  Byron said, pulling out a small data cube.  “We conducted an investigation.  He was a banker, pretty well to do.  His wife and children had no idea what was going on.  He’d quit his job and had started to give away all their assets.  They’re currently tied up in the courts trying to figure out if they can keep the money he was trying to give away.”

“Let me guess, lawyers are gumming up the works.” Jahni said with a sigh.  “I hate lawyers.”

“They always want you to stop fighting people.”  Tommaso added.  

“When we investigated, the local police found something interesting that they passed along to the intelligence services.”  Byron said, and pressed the cube.  

Financial documents were displayed up in the air, through the holograph projector.  Small enough for only the three of them to be able to properly read it.  A lot of the information was redacted, but at the top, in bright red letters, someone had written over the top of the warning from the bank about the lack of payments.  It was hastily written, in a scrawl that looked both determined and frantic at the same time.  

“NFJF?”  Jahni asked, looking over at Tommaso who shrugged, equally in the dark.

“Now take a look at this.”  Byron said, pulling up footage of one of the attacks on a Full Sail Checkpoint station. 

A masked man was running through the halls of the building, finally stopping in a large gallery.  He pulled out a can of spray paint and in big green letters, sprayed “NFJF” on the glass.  There were yells from off camera and security came into view to stun him.  But then from the other side, blaster shots were fired, killing the security guards.  The footage ended with one of the masked men turned his blaster on the security camera.

“Something is going on, and we want the two of you to figure it out."
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