Without his scarlet Mandalorian armor, Salu Fett appeared to be nothing more than a commoner in the packed halls of floor 111. All around his dozens of drunks stumbled over themselves, heading to another cantina so they can get a little bit more of "the cure." At every intersection, squads of guards were trying to keep order by breaking up fights and arresting those who were over the legal BAC limit.

He'd been inspecting the guards since he came on and he was not impressed. While well staffed and disciplined, they were armed only with stun sticks. Plus, they had a continuous rivalry with "the department," a rivalry that only weakened them internally.

The chrono on his wrist said it was 1530. He had an appointment at a local bar called Hades Hive at 1630. It wouldn't hurt to be early, but he had to make a quick stop first.

On his belt was the only piece of equipment he would need. Normally it was attached to his Utility Belt, but today the Holo-shroud would be used alone.
He checked the back; he had fully charged it before leaving his hanger and its power levels were at 96%. Excellent.

He walked into a refresher stall, and when he emerged 3 minutes later he appeared to be a mere station mechanic, complete with a toolbelt on his waist.

Down the hall was a number of Shifter booths. He headed towards there, walking casually as if he was supposed to be here. The 2 guards stationed by the shifters only paid him a momentary glance.

He walked up to the matinence room next to the elevators. He had only 5 seconds, perhaps 10. If it took too long to enter the access code, the guards would know something’s up.



He hooked a randomizer up to the astromech jack. It would try hundreds of thousands of different code combinations a second until one cracked it, giving him access. If anyone asked, he could say a slicer changed the access code and he had to reset the code.

On the randomizer, the little red light that signaled it was working turned off to be replaced by an amber glow. On the screen it showed the code that was successful, 8LF-8TVC-R12-19\14. He clicked the save button. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that this code would unlock all the other matinence bays on the floor, and maybe the whole station if it got lucky and found the mastercode. Plus, who knew just what other places it could unlock?



The door opened itself up in front of him and he stepped in, the door closing behind him. In the softly lit room dozens of half-assembled machines and eight shelves for spare components. He walked past each in turn until he found what he was looking for. He stuffed 2 of them into the satchel case he had been carrying and left as discreetly as he had entered.



As he stepped into the cantina Hades Hive, its warm, friendly atmosphere reached out to immerse him. Inside, dozens of sentient creatures were sitting at the bar or at tables sipping on drinks and making Smalltalk. In the back corner he saw a male Twi'lek, his contact, sitting as if he had all the time in the world. He stepped in that direction, but a shrill voice from behind made him jump.

"Hey, you want a drink?" the barkeep asked.

"No, I'm fine, thank you," he replied, continuing towards the Twi'lek. Long ago he had learned the secret to staying on someone’s good side was to be polite. If you appeared to be a simple, ordinary commoner then no one would bother you.

He managed to reach the booth without incident. He sat down across from the Twi'lek and said "So Mesh, what can I do for you today?"

(Hope this is alright with you. If not, please tell me. :) )

Revar "Wolf" Vralax sat patiently at the side of the cantina furthest from his prey, feigning interest in a holo-chess game two booths away, yet maintaining visual contact with the scumbag through an occasional passing glance. It wasn't exactly easy to tell where he was looking at any point in time, considering his full-body, Imperial issue Scout Trooper armor, which had long since been repainted a black as deep and foreboding as the infinite expanse of space. Though it didn't hurt to be cautious.

The target; a Twi'lek male named Mesh. He'd earned the ire of both Wolf himself and a family on Coruscant by raping, then murdering a daughter of theirs in a particularly brutal fashion. They paid well and the bounty was justified, but credits didn't really matter. Wolf viewed it as a chance to...rectify a mistake fate had made in creating this monster.

All he needed was a bit of alone time with Mesh, far from prying eyes, to earn his wages. However, no such opportunity had presented itself yet, and he was becoming agitated. The craven alien hadn't left Hades' Hive since he'd arrived, five standard hours ago. Wolf's trigger finger itched and he felt naked without the reassuring weight of his rifle. Damnable security measures.

This station, outwardly, was not much to look at from a military stand point, and the local police force had a laughable armament of only stun sticks, but this was nothing compared with what could come if an actual threat surfaced. It was subtle. The Astral Astoria wasn't built for intimidation.

It seemed as though its owners desired to create an air of comfort, to lull visitors into a false sense of security. His commando's instincts told him that much, making him uneasy every second he spent aboard her...but this was a concern for a different time, there was hunting to do.

It'd occured to him some time ago that Mesh must have been waiting for someone. He knew the Twi'lek was some sort of contact for a wealthy party, but which one, and how wealthy, weren't immediately apparent based on the small amount of intercepted communications he had aquired during the course of his hunt.

The answers would come, he was sure of it. In the interim, he'd try to formulate an alternate plan of attack, in case his suspicions of a second person showing up proved to be correct. This would require a bit of time to be properly thought out, and most likely much more to be executed successfully. He just began to hunker down for prolonged mentation when a crimson-armored Mandalorian came through the front doors.

His instincts flared, warning him of danger. This new arrival posed a very clear threat. Perhaps he was another hunter, as his posture seemed to suggest, come to collect on Mesh's bounty, or maybe Wolf was just being paranoid and the man wanted nothing more than a drink. Then again, his instincts were rarely wrong...

Wolf watched as the Mandalorian made his way toward the coward's location, tensing more and more with each step he took. He nearly stood up when the bar tender called out to the man, but restrained himself, noting his courteous refusal of service. Then, the Mandalorian sat at the table, directly across from Mesh, and the two began to converse, right when the resident band started their next number.

"Damn," Wolf growled to himself, suddenly unsure as to how to proceed.

After a moment of weighing his options, he relaxed, reaching up to activate the helmet's target acquisition software. Before his eyes, red numbers and letters flared to life, a box forming around the Mandalorian. All around it, small tidbits of information appeared, and a pair of words caught his eye. The nearest database, which was the Astral Astoria's, gave him a name. Salu Fett.

"A Fett, here? Why? How?" Questions quickly raced through his mind, but he halted them all at once with a logical conclusion, "All I can do is wait and see what happens...then, I'll act accordingly."

Xavier Cassius sat hidden as the man in scarlet mandalorian armour walked in. Xavier himself had the same armour as him, but silver. Xavier's hand strayed down to his holstered blaster rifle. Be careful, his inner voice warned him. Xavier was here to collect a bounty on a man who was wanted for gunrunning and slaverunning. An all-round scumbag. Xavier rose and made his way through the crowded bar to the man's table, nodding to his fellow hunter as he passed. Sitting down next to the man, he said, "Do you have the cargo?" The man nodded once. "Where?" Xavier inquired. "Cargo bay 45." Replied the slaver. "Thank you." Sneered Xavier. "You scum." A hidden blaster pistol, undetected by the scanners, swung up to cover the slaver. "You're coming with m-" Xavier was cut off as a stun baton smashed into the back of his head, sending the silver-armoured bounty hunter sprawling. The helmet protected him but he still recieved a shock. His pistol came up and spat out two red blaster bolts. The stun baton-wielding thug fell dead. The slaver was running for the exit. Xavier raised the pistol again and fired. The bolt missed and slagged a cash register. The next shot didn't miss. The slaver crashed into the bar, dislogeing an alien costomer. Xavier ran to him before the patrons could.He was going fast. "A...aa....C...Cc...Cassius..." He put more loathing into the name than Xavier thought possible. He grabbed the late slaver under the armpits and dragged him from the bar. "Sorry about the mess." He said, quoting Han Solo. Nodding again to the scarlet armoured man and his Twi'lek companion, he exited the bar with the dead slaver being towed behind him.

(Could you guys PM me on where your going with this so I can plan my future posts around it? thanks)
________________________________________________________

"So Mesh, what can I do for you today?"

Getting straight to the point was one of the Twi'leks traits, and to day was no exception. "Salu, have you ever heard of a man by the name of Sever Han?"

The name hit him like a blasterbolt in the chest, and if he wasn't wearing his armor everyone for kilometers could have seen the shock on his face. Sever Han was possible one of the most powerful sentients in the galaxy, because he ran the vast criminal organization, The Tenloss Syndicate. A million credit bounty was on him, posted by rival organization The Black Sun. "Sever Han" he said, catching his breath, "he's here?"

"He will be in 2 days, on this data chip is everything you'll need. Plans, dinner reservations, where he'll be staying, even the seat he'll be sitting in at the oprah."

"How longs he staying?"

"4 days, he's meeting with several members of rival organizations to discuss the possibility of setting up a front against the rebuilt black sun."

"What's he gonna have in the form of defenses?"

"He'll have several squads of his bodyguards of course, he always does, and I believe that his agents are already infiltrating the station."

"That's to be expected."

Of to their right, the man sprung his trap, jumping out and trying to get another man, though getting hit with a stun baton in the process before shooting the guard. 2 blaster bolts then took down his prey. He began dragging the corpse back out into the station halls. Bad idea, even the underarmed security would notice that. Poor basterd, but there wasn't much he could do for him without revealing an array of concealed and highly illegal weapons he carried. The Twi'lek spoke to him and he turned back to Mesh.

"Salu," he said quietly, almost under his breath, "they'res something else I need you to do for me."

"What is it?" he replied.

"Look at that table caddy corner to us."

In it was a man in a scout troopers armor painted a glossy black. On his hip was a blaster, and slung around his arm was a blaster rifle. He was looking at the band, obviously disturbed by the Jibbing of one of the instruments. The music here was supposed to appeal to a multitude of different species. Obviously humans weren’t one of them.

"Salu" Mesh said, voice worried and stressed, "They're out to get me."

"My friend, I'll have to work on that."
_______________________________________________________

Ulrich was sitting on the bridge of the now repaired "Merc's Blade" when he got the call from Salu, one of his latest contacts.

"Yeah," he said back into his comlink, "we can keep an eye on him."

"On the other end Salu said "Ulrich, there's one more thing I also need you to do..."

Xavier dropped the slaver's body in the hallway and searched it, finding the man's ship ID. Security had arrived, having noticed the dead body in the hallway. Xavier turned with his E-11 out this time. "This man is a slaver and a scumbag. His slaves are in cargo hold 45. I need your help." The security men agreed reluctantly and followed Xavier down the hallway towards the turbolifts.

In the cargo bay, pristine and gleaming, was a YT-875 freighter. Xavier leveled his E-11 and ordered the security men to spread out to surround the vessel. He then proceeded to the ramp and hit the controls to lower it. He went carefully up the ramp and, calling up the specs for a YT-875 freighter from his HUD, headed towards the cockpit.

When he arrived, nothing was out of order. He swept his gaze over the cockpit, then decided to check the hold. As he turned a laser bolt zipped past. He leapt sideways and fired twice from his E-11. A burly human slaver slammed against the crash padding and died. Xavier, rifle raised, proceeded down the hall.

He found the hold were the slaves were being held by accident. He was passing the door to the hold when it hissed open and a towering humanoid charged out, slamming into the bounty hunter. Xavier was lifted bodily and flung against the crash padding on the wall. Winded, he dropped to the floor, losing his E-11. The humanoid, a Wookiee-like thing with fangs and three eyes, produced a pistol from a side holster and shot Xavier in the shoulder.

(I'm pretty much just along for the ride. I'll follow whatever direction you choose, and contribute when I can. If I do anything drastic, I'll inform you of it beforehand. ;) )

Wolf watched the two out of the corner of his eye, making sure to keep his head turned to face the band; a slight bit of visual deception. Should anyone notice him, they'd think he was watching the four-piece Bith group, and not enjoying it too much either. He was still too tense and he knew it was readily apparent to any observer, but there was little he could do to alleviate that tension, short of pulling his projectile pistol and spacing Mesh.

Only the Twi'lek would come under fire if it came to that, since Wolf wasn't after the other hunter, and wasn't too fond of needlessly killing. Though, if fired upon, he'd respond in kind.

He'd just live with it, as there was no other alternative, aside from death or spending the rest of his natural born life in a penitentiary on the Astral Astoria. Understandably, neither were too appealing to him. Discretion was indeed the better part of valor.

Perhaps he could wait until the two left the relative security of the bar, follow them, and when they least expected it-

A fight broke out not ten feet from him, one man in silver Mandalorian style armor dropping to the deck after being clubbed with a stun-stick. He grabbed a blaster from its holster, gunning down the man who struck him and fired wildy, hitting a few random objects, and eventually, his intended target. Luckily, no bystanders were harmed. He then stood, apologizing for the mess as he dragged his kill from the bar.

Wolf's hand slowly left his pistol, finger easing off the trigger.

"That was more than a bit direct," He muttered under his breath. If the security forces outside didn't pick him up, Wolf would be surprised, and a little disappointed. Actions like that gave people in his line of work a less than admirable reputation in the galaxy as being nothing more than blaster-waving brutes.

His attention returned to his quarry, just in time to notice a slight movement by the crimson Mandalorian, Salu Fett...whose helmet turned, almost imperceptibly, toward him. His instincts screamed at him again. He felt an all consuming need to get up and leave, immediately. But, he knew enough to realize that doing so would alert them, and draw attention that he just didn't want.

He cursed, "Blast it all, I've been made."

Curiously, Salu turned right back to the conversation, seemingly unconcerned with Wolf's presence. Strange...most in this business would have acted at the first sign of impending danger, by firing in his general direction and fleeing, rapidly. With this new development, he'd have to tread much more carefully, and take steps to conceal himself from their view in the future. Just in case, he casually dropped his hand down to flick his pistol's safety off.

This was becoming more difficult. Wolf had spent over a week tracking this murderer, and there was no way in hell he leaving this station without that bastard's head. He'd been specially selected for the job because of his knowledge relating to a particularly brutal torture method, commonly called "the Burning". It was a thoroughly unpleasant practice where one used a blaster, set on low power, to slowly burn off a victims flesh, leaving exposed, blackened bone. He never liked it...hated it, in fact, but it was what his contractor requested.

The family wanted revenge...and Wolf was their instrument.

"Your move, Fett," He uttered, "Don't get in my way...this guy deserves what he has coming."

Salu decided protecting his contact was more important than the bounty about to arrive, he could prepair for that tomorrow, but without his contact there would be no way to redeam the reward.

As Mesh got up and left to go back to his apartment, Salu ordered a drink and a meal, something to give the impression that he'd be here for a while. With the full 360 degree view provided by his helmet, he was capable of keeping an eye on the man as he waited without turning towards him.

The man in the black armor was evidently satisfied with his preformance, because he got up and left the bar, following Mesh at a safe distance.

But what did they want Mesh for? Was there something in the past he might have done? If so, it could be... profitable. He could find a new contact, but the effort would only be worth it for the right price. Less than that and it would be a hassle to replace him.




(wolf, you cannot kill him until he talks to salu in the apartment, then he's all yours. after that Salu will hunt him down and that should make for an interesting confruntation.

(Fine by me, he's "safe" until then. ;) )

Much to Wolf's surprise, Salu seemed to forget entirely about his being there. The Mandalorian even ordered dinner. Maybe he'd been wrong in assuming that the crimson hunter even noticed him in the first place. And yet, he had intuitively percieved a potent threat behind Fett's T-shaped visor. Instead of clinging to that hope, he chose to err on the side of caution, and trust in his initial assessment of the situation. He would assume it was nothing but a craftily concieved artifice.

A bit of subterfuge was in order, something Wolf had become exceptionally skilled at over the years. This Mandalorian thought he was clever, and to the man's credit, his approach very nearly worked, but obviously, he underestimated his peer's perceptiveness.

He hadn't more than a few moments of thought before Mesh stood, and walked towards, then out, the door. There was no time to strategize; his prey just made a simple, yet effective move. Leaving.

"Confound this blasted Twi'lek!"

Wolf stood a few seconds later, trying to appear, for all intents and purposes, like he was just tired, even going so far as to stretch and yawn. Afterwards, he paid the bill along with a sizeable tip, and nonchalantly followed Mesh out into the hustle and bustle of Floor 111.

He decided then and there that he would go about this tailing as overtly as possible. Better to let his enemies think he'd been fooled and become lax in their vigil...

They passed armed guards, all of whom gave Wolf wary looks, several stores, dozens of cantinas, thousands of beings from every last known race in the galaxy, beautiful fountains, puking drunks, charming displays of exotic flora, and a few other apartment complexes all within the four minutes it took to reach Mesh's. The murderer paused just outside the door, looking around tentatively, before walking in.

The Busy Mynock was this complex's name. Wolf committed that, and its location, to memory...his armor's database too, just to be safe. After a brief second or two of checking his surroundings for security personnel, he approached the Mynock's main door. He reached into one of his belt's compartments and produced a small grey, cylindrical device, an inch around, which he placed on his thumb and flicked up at the section of wall just above the door. It stuck where it hit, tiny insect-like legs sprouting from its surface to magnetically grip the steel.

Wolf then melded into the crowd, losing himself among them...plucking a reciever from the same compartment, and powered it up. On the little screen a live video feed came to life...from the top of the door...

Xavier killed the wookiee-thing by shooting it with his blaster pistol. He decended the ramp to the ground to signal the security forces to come up to inspect the slaver vessel.The freighter exploded as Xavier reched the bottom. Protected by his armour,the bounty hunter was hurled nonetheless like a ragdoll to the floor. Burning debris rained around him. Damn! He scrambled to his feet and inspected the debris around him. On one of the pieces there was the ship's name; the Man'O' War . Xavier picked it up and exited the hangar towards the same bar that he had left an hour ago. "So much for freeing the slaves." He said to himself ruefully.

Sitting down at a table in one corner, he ordered a Flameout and placed the ship's ID plaque on it. He then opened his helmet's onboard database and linked it to that of the collossal space station.

The Man'O'War: licensed to Interplanetary Shipping Lt.
Suspected front for the Tenloss Synicate.
If found, please notify security.

"Oh no, I don't think I'll notify security." Said the bounty hunter to himself.
He realised he had heard the name Tenloss Syndicate before.... Of course! The man with the same armour as he, but in crimson instead of Xavier's silver. What was his name? He had caught it in the conversation between the man and the Twi'lek. Fett...Fett....Salu Fett! Of course! It made sense. Fett was a magnificent bounty hunter, one of the feared line of Fetts from Kamino. "I need to contact him and see what he knows about the Tenloss Syndicate." Said the silver armoured bounty hunter to himself. He rose from his table and left for the Eagle ,his modified Y-wing, to prepare his search for Salu Fett.

By the time Mesh got back to his apartment, he was screaming inside his head. He knew they were around him, watching him, waiting for the right time to strike. The only place he could be safe was in his apartment, and by the time he arrived he was almost running. Inside! That was where he would be safe. He keyed in his code and put his thumb on a pad that scanned his hand and opened the durasteel blast door. As he stepped in the 2 swivil blasters mounted on the ceiling scanned him. They were programmed to leave him and only him alone, vaporizing all others. He breathed a sigh of relief, he was safe. Now he just needed a drink.

But the sight that greeted him as he turned to look down the hall struck terror through him and made him forget everything, even that drink. At once, all the alarm bells within his head went off. Standing in his hall was a Scarlet armored Mandolorian.

"No, Salu, not you too," was all he managed to squeek out.

The Bounty Hunter just gestured for him to take a seat in Mesh's living room. Mesh sat down on an expensive Nerf leather couch facing the Holoscreen at the far end of the room. As the bounty hunter sat down beside him, the twi'lek took a flask from somewhere on his person and took a swig of a Corellian ale that burnt all the way down. Just what he needed.

The Scarlet armored Mandolorian spoke first. "So, Mesh, just what did you do to be so hated?" It was not a request, it was a command.

The twi'lek was still gasping in suprise. "Salu, how did you get in here?"

"I'm just me."

"Well, maybe I'm just me too." He was referring to the fact that he contracted bounty hunters for a living.

"No shit Mesh. You have five seconds to start talking or your dead." In his hand appeared a small but leithel holdout disruptor.

"Alright, alright" he said. Salu was suprised that he started talking so early, but then again, Twi'leks were absolutely afraid of death. "I assume your familiar with a torture technique commonly called 'the burning?" The Bounty Hunter nodded his agreement and he continued. "Well, about a year ago, a bounty was posted on a man, but that man was so sneaky that nobody ever found him, I think his name was Mer Koffer. We had all his com codes and contacts, but it seemed he had just disappeared. So several months ago, I got a number of ameture bounty hunters to track down and bring me his family members. Then, on his private comm frequencys I transmitted a message. It was something involving he better surrender or we'll torture his family. Well, in the end, he never gave himself up and we used 'the burning' on all 22 peoplewe had. We knew he was watching because it reported that there was another person on the other end, but he never surrendered."

That seemed to satisfy Salu, because he just stood up, nodded, and walked out. But the funny thing was the auto turrets didn't even seem to notice his presence.