"Thank you." Said Xavier, catching the blaster pistol Salu threw at him. No sooner had it happened it had a smoking hole in it, courtesy of Wolf. Xavier wasn't finished. He rolled sideways and grabbed his E-11 from the spot it had landed. He did not fire, even though he could have blasted the scout with his E-11 or about 15 other ways with the hidden weapons in his suit, but refrained. He didn't need any more enemies. He lowered the E-11 and got to his feet. "Tell you what, Wolf, how about we shake on thi-" He was cut off by a beep from his comlink. It was Red, his R2 unit. "What is it?" He growled. The whistles raised a frown on his masked face. "Time for that later, fellas. A group of Tenloss men are coming our way. I suggest we leave this apartment."

"Hmm," Salu said, "They're not due for another 2 days. A little ahead of schedual."

Wolf stood up. "I say we say and fight. Between us three and your mercinary over there we could take them." He gestured at the stock human by the doorway.

"I suggest we take our leave," Salu said, more an order than a suggestion. "We wouldn't want them alerted to our... presence prematurly."

"I know we've got to go, but where?" Marcus piped in. "If they've done their homework, our ships are surrounded."

"And no doubt they've done it, knowing them. But I have a different place in mind. A little place called The Bonadan Lounge."

(if you don't know what it is, check the AA general glossary; but it sounds like a great place for a gunfight)

"Yeah." Said Xavier. "Best to choose a place and time to fight." He gestured to the merc in the doorway. "Let's go."

The three bounty hunters and the merc arrived at the Bonadan Lounge. The large lounge was round, littered with tables and chairs. The three hunters and the merc spread out, readying their weapons for the Tenloss men.

The first thug broke through the door, knocking an alien customer out of the way in the process. Xavier fired a shot from his E-11, burning a hole in the man's chest and throwing him back. "Get ready." Xavier cautioned the others. "Theres going to be more of them coming." He said, stating the obvious.

(I didn't want to start the gunfight, I only moved us.)

(Uh, the lounge is the second largest casino on the astral astoria)

The Bonetan Lounge was huge and extravagant, sure signs that Vinda Corp owned it. All around the massive room were Sabbac tables, Corshu wheel, and equipment for dozens of games totally alien to Salu. All around, massive fortunes changed hands between well-dressed patrons. At regular intervals around the Casino, buff security guards stood ready for anything that might happen, and something was going to happen soon.

He and Wolf went in and started walking around, as if looking for a good game to play. Xavier, not so inexperienced as shaky, stared at the door with his hand on his holstered E-11. Already security guards were glancing at him, analyzing him to see what kind of threat he was. The pair closest to him muttered a few things to each other and then took a step in his direction, intending to have him leave.

But as they stepped forward, an Aqualish by the entrance let out a disgruntled yell as a bulky man with a blaster rifle pushed him aside. They spun towards him quickly only for him to be dropped by two quick shots by Xavier’s blaster. "Get ready." Xavier cautioned the others. "There's going to be more of them coming."

As if the other two had needed the reminder.

The security guards were all drawing blasters and heading towards either Xavier or the dead man at the entrance. Salu and Wolf, still trying to remain discreet, kept their hands away from their blasters. The last thing they wanted now was attention, especially when every security guard in the place was ready to go.

Xavier was standing by a Sabbac table looking around at the guards coming in from all directions. Still holding his blaster, he worriedly looked for a way out of the situation.

But the diversion he needed was given to him only seconds later.

At the front of the Casino, three-dozen men in varied dress and carrying late model military blaster ran in, laying coverfire across the casino and hitting several patrons.

The security guards immediately turned towards this threat, shooting their own coverfire at them as they dove for cover behind overturned Sabbac tables.

In the middle of the lounge, Wolf and Salu dove for cover. Wolf, obviously an excellent marksman, was surgically picking off the ones in charge. The Scarlet armored Mandalorian, Salu, a more strategic thinker, was checking their back at regular intervals and laying down coverfire with his commando rifle.

But Xavier, what had happened to Xavier?

Looking towards where he had been, he was relieved to see the man blasting away at them from behind a holochess table. Behind him, two of the security guards that were going to make him leave were now doing their part to stop the enemy Commandos attacking the Lounge.

After they had burst in, the place seemed to have become completely abandoned. Besides the bodies of a few people that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, there was no sign that this place had been jam-packed only minutes before.

The enemy commandos were still pouring in, now amounting to over fifty after losses. The security guards were good, but they weren't enough. They were slowly getting picked off, though he couldn't blame them. They had been hired and trained to maintain order, not to fight in gun duels like this one.

But how could they get out of this place? Looking behind them, he saw no exits. The main entrance was the only way in or out. They were going to have to do this the hardway, but only if the hard way didn't kill them first.

Beside him Wolf was still blasting away. There was a large pile of bodies in the general area he had been shooting with a similar pile near Xavier. Good to know that he had found some men who knew what they were doing, but this information would only help if they could survive the next few minutes.

As Xavier kept up a heavy fire on the attacking men, he realised that the men he was fighting with, Salu and Wolf, were valueble allies. He crouched behind one of the gambling tables as blaster bolts ripped the air around him. He pegged off a bunch of shots at the door, dropping an enemy as he had sprayed the casino with fire. Xavier activated his jetpack, rocketing across the casino at the door. He landed and lashed the area with fire from his wrist flame thrower. The enemy were kept back by the flames. Xavier turned and yelled to his comrades. "Come on fellas, let's go before things get too uncomfortable!"

Setting aside any misgivings he may have had about following these two hunters, Wolf muttered something less than civil towards Salu as he'd picked up his short-barreled carbine and ran out the door of Mesh's apartment, right in step with his new allies. He'd favored a more direct approach to this matter...standing their ground and blasting any fool dumb enough to charge in. The idea was shot down almost immediately and probably for the best. He wasn't exactly thinking too clearly right now...things were changing at an exceedingly fast pace.

They could very well have held their own back there, bottlenecking the bastards in the doorway and mowing them down with impunity. That, or they'd be killed by a well thrown grenade...which made the plan a little flimsy, now that he thought about it. "We'll see if what happens in the Bonadan Lounge will be any better..."

They arrived in short order, entering the massive casino floor, instantly overwhelmed by the dull roar of thousands of patrons and brilliantly flashing lights. There were games everywhere, so many that Wolf chose to ignore them entirely rather than waste time counting. Instead, he opted to scan the area for any and all ingress and egress points, along with noting the location of each security guard. He assigned every one an electronic "tag" which allowed him to track them all on a small screen in the upper right corner of his HUD.

Salu was at his side and the two did a fairly convincing job of feigning interest in the myriad of games available, managing to fool security and keep themselves unnoticed. Xavier, however, seemed to be having difficulty. He was clutching his E-11 in a death grip, watching the doors like he expected hell itself to come bursting through. "Rookie," Wolf whispered, not surprised to see a couple guards start to move in the third hunter's direction.

They never got there. Wolf's head was turned once the firing started, as he'd been watching the other guards start to converge on Xavier's location in the little screen, but he whipped around just in time to see an armed man drop by the main entrance.

He and Salu just sort of watched events unfold, not so much as making a move for their weapons. Doing so at this point would have been downright stupid, what with all the gun-toting guards rushing past. Wolf would have gotten a good half-dozen, and Salu probably the same, but there were twenty of them now...not the best odds by any stretch of the imagination.

Then, simply put, hell did, in fact, burst through the front door, justifying Xavier's earlier behavior.

Dozens of heavily armed troops ran in, two abreast, guns blazing, fanning out and flipping over tables to provide cover for themselves. The first ones in laid down surpressing fire, killing a few bystanders and guards in the first volley alone. More came pouring in, some dropping even as more entered to replace them.

The guards were quick to respond, flipping over tables as well and firing back. It was soon obvious though that they were ill prepared for such an engagement...they were there to kick out drunks and pissed off losers. Wolf doubted many of them had even fired their blasters outside of a firing range. They wouldn't last too long against experienced soldiers.

Wolf, Salu, and Xavier, on the other hand, were quite capable of defending themselves.

The first two hunters had taken up firing positions in the very center of the casino. While Wolf was busy kneeling behind an upturned Sabac table, firing his projectile pistol around the sides with almost inhuman accuracy (Men were dropping like flies, each with a newly acquired hole between their eyes.), Salu watched their back and provided cover fire with a commando style rifle, neatly peppering several of them with blaster bolts. Xavier was stuck with a few guards in the corner closest to the entrance, burning any Tenloss grunt that ran into his sights.

Wolf was suddenly glad that a compromise had been reached and more blood hadn't been shed in the apartment. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that he'd of been killed quite a few times by now without their support.

A stray thought crossed his mind, even as a shimmering red bolt passed just inches from his armored head; What happened to the merc? He risked a quick peak around the tomb...er...room, and found the hulk of a man lieing in a pool of his own blood, feebly grasping at the wound in death. Wolf gave the poor sod a small salute, stood, and nailed what looked like an officer right through the mouth, which had been opened, perhaps, to shout an order. He dropped back into a kneeling position as a pair of intersecting bolts sliced through the air where he'd been an instant before.

Things were looking grim as more and more Syndicate troops stormed in. "For fuck sakes," Wolf shouted, "Did they bring an entire damn division!? I'm running out of ammo here." With that, he expelled another spent clip from the pistol and slammed a new one home.

He looked out to fire again and saw Xavier take off, jet pack sending out a trail of black smoke, with a bit of fire, behind him. The silver Mandalorian landed among the Tenloss troops and quickly brought his gauntleted hand to bear. A stream of white hot flame issued forth from it, toasting everything within 5 meters.

Wolf smirked a bit as the other hunter called them over...maybe things would work out after all. That same smirk remained as he tapped Salu on the shoulder and along the way, blew a hole through a soldier's head who'd been about blast Xavier in the back...

Even if they didn't make it out of this one alive, it was one hell of a way to go.

It had been a narrow escape, but a breathtaking one. In fact, he found that deep down he actually had enjoyed the experience.

Now he and the other two hunters were crammed into one of the Astorias rare alleyways, cooling off after the recent gunfight.

Wolf and Xavier were sitting next to him, with Xavier closest to the Alleyways entrance, though far enough back in the shadows to not be spotted.

Beside him his two newfound comrades were letting the past few minutes sink in. Neither were breathing hard or showing any physical signs of exhaustion, a good sign about the two men.

But that talk they'd never had...



He gripped an odd device that looked similar to a thermal detonator off his belt and pressed the activation button on it. He threw it towards the alleyways entrance. Immediately, Wolf looked at him, but Salu was quicker, yanking his blaster away before he shot it.

"It's a sensor to detect enemys, don't shoot it."

Wolf just gave what was probably a puzzled look behind his mask and reholstered his blaster.

"Now, gentlemen," he said, "I believe we were going to have a little talk."

The recent gun battle had set his instincts on maximum and when Salu threw the spherical object, which looked terribly similar to a thermal detonator, Wolf nearly blasted the damn thing...and was hard pressed to not do so, even after he'd been told it was nothing but a compact sensor package. He growled something under his breath and reholstered his weapon, which he'd drawn without realizing it a second before.

This alleyway was nice and dark, a perfect place to hide from both the escelating number of security patrols out there and any Tenloss informants that may be lurking about. Wolf was the best off of the three in terms of camouflage, since the darkness made him almost invisible back there, except for his vague outline and the reflections of distant lights on his visor.

He barely heard it when Salu spoke and it took a moment to register with him...as he could swear he was still back in the casino...or at least his instincts could. When he did, all Wolf could do was smile. Right to business with this Fett.

An admirable quality he happened to respect.

"Before we were so rudely interrupted, you mean," He asked, glancing toward Xavier, who shrugged innocently, "Multiple times?"

Wolf grumbled something and looked back towards Salu, "Right, on to business. These Tenloss Sons a bitches have gotten on my nerves, what with the trying to kill me and all, and I'd love to take a crack at them," He paused, looking to be in deep thought, "From what I heard at Hades' Hive from the late Mesh...sorry about that by the way, it's just business, and from what I was told, he wasn't exactly a great guy...you're about to do something involving them...which I hope includes violence..."

He paused again then appeared to have reached a decision, "I'd like to help if I can...for a cut of the profits, of course."

Xavier was in agreement with Wolf. They would need all the help they would get to take this ring of thieves and murderers down. He shifted in his seat, moving deeper into the shadows of the alleyway. Salu chucked an anti-personnel detector at the entrance, and Xavier shifted his E-11 into a more comfortable position on his chest. "I'm sure that we can get a fair amount of loot from this coup. But the question is, how can we do it now that our ships are surrounded and the bastards know we are here?"

(I really have no ideas for here, we could cut to the chaise, or do some more treading around. Or even get in contact with the firm [once again, check the AA glossary if you don't know who/what they are]. But once more, I have no ideas, so someone imput, but if you have no ideas as well, i guess I could make one. Sorry)