Jutraal

The former capital of the Jutraalian Empire retained only vestiges of its former glory- a fact reinforced by the mood of the planet's populace. Once a seat of power that rivaled Coruscant at it hey-day, the planet was now just another world in the mighty Galactic Empire. Qive could see it in the eyes of the citizens he passed on the streers, a hollow look ingrained in their faces. Not everyone was like that- many Jutraalians had come to terms long ago with their diminished role in the galaxy- but on the streets which Qive had traveled he had seen only a microcasim of the Jutraalian populace, and that microcasim told a story.

They were mostly men, fit, competent looking men- who were wearing clothes far to shabby for their stature, standing with a posture that spoke of a now usurped authority. They acknowledged Qive's unusual prescence with looks, but did not pause long to inquire why the huge alien was walking near them. These were those hit hardest by the defeat of the Jutraalian Empire, the masses of ex-military men, whose association with the military had given them a dual stigma: considered unloyal to the new regime, they were barred from the Imperial Military; and were often derried by their countrymen for allowing the Empire to collapse.

However, this condition was actually excellent cover for Qive, as he wove his way through the back-streets under towering bu somehow unmajestic skyscrapers. His presence, though noted, was not a pressing concern for these men. That let Qive feel at ease as he approached his destination.

The Green Luck Casino was a major draw to the men who frequented this area of Jutraal's capita city. A place where they could addle their brains and drink away the problems of today, or take a chance in games of chance and skill. The casino was unusual, in that it accepted old Jutraalian currency at a rather favorable exchange rate, and that fact alone ensured the place was almost always packed with patrons. A few other casino's wondered how the Green Luck managed to stay afloat with such a liberal policy concern the old money, but the casino never even hinted at any financial troubles, and so the matter was just accepted as an unsolvable mystery.

As Qive approached the casino, he noted from the line of men at the door and mutltiude of vehicles arrayed every which way around the casino that it was an ordinary night at the Green Luck, which suited him just fine. Instead of walking toward the short line that snaked out of the casino's front doors, he walked past. An alley ran alongside the casino, and Qive manuevered his large frame down it. Placing his hand on a seemingly unconsequential stretch of building, there was a muffled chime and flash of light. A biometric dectection device had been activated, camoflauged by the dim light and its obscure location. A red light blinked confirming Qive's identity, and the wall slid away.

The passage was unlit, and the inky blackness consumed Qive. It barely phased him- he'd walked through the passage before. Qive was very familiar with the workings of what was one of the Jutraalian Snydicate's most important bases.

The two major crime organizations Black Sun and the Jutraalian Snydicate had been brought together as the founding members of the "The Union." A story of intrigue and betrayl, much of the formation of the Union had occured at the Green Luck Casino. Although presently the Chairman spent most of his time on the Unions mobile Headquarters, the Super Star Destroyer Midas , he had at one time ruled the Union from this very building. Though it was no longer the Union's command post, it still served as a nexus for the Jutraalian Syndicate, which remained one of the Unions most influential and profitable subfactions.

Qive emerged from the dark passageway in a luxury box nestled deep inside the casino. Never used, the box was always listed as "reserved" since it was used rather often by various agents to enter and exit the casino very stealthily. Qive quietly exited the luxury box, and began pacing toward the muffled cacophony in the distance. He had a meeting with contact in one of the Green Luck's private conference halls. Undoubtly his contact thought that the Green Luck was neutral territory, where the sheer number of people and armed prescence would act as a safeguard against any underhanded dealings. He had very important information to peddle, and was expecting to make a killing. Qive had informed him when they had first talked (via comm-link) that money was not a problem. The Union desperatly needed one last crucial bit of information, and was willing to do anything to get it.

Unfortunatly for the contact, the choice of venues was rather poor.

Qive emerged into the midst of a dance-floor/bar, and was bombarded by a rush of fast beat, loud music. The Green Luck had an assortment of entertainment venues, catering to everyone from the younger generation of hipsters to oldest geratrics. Games of chance, fine dining, theatres, parlor games, shows, concerts, dance halls- it had it all. Qive stood out like a sore thumb in the dance hall, filled with men and women in their early 20s or later teens. He made haste to exit, and access a major corridor.

The casino was rather full, and Qive's large size ensured that his sojourn to the the conference room was laborious and slow. Undeterred he finally reached a turbolift, and shook himself away from the throngs of people. Shooting upwards, he reached into his jumpsuit and pulled out a large blaster pistol. Ensuring a fully charged blaster pack was inserted, he replaced the large weapon, which molded well into large frame.

Time for negotiations.


Tatooine

He opened his eyes, sending a jolt of pain through his head. He reached up felt the area around his eyes was lacerated and extremly raw to the touch. The movement sent spikes of pain up his arm from the shoulder. The sun was blinding and he shut his eyes again. Mustering strength he sat up. Sand and bits of debris fell from all around him. His sense of smell seemed to coem alive, and he could nearly taste burnt flesh.

His mind was numb, confused and delerious. Staggering to his feet, he collapsed forward, landing painfully on the packed desert sand. Doggedly, he returned to his feet and peered off intot he distance. There was nothing. Spinning rapidly and threatening to return to the ground, his charred face squinted, and in the distance he noticed shapes.... blocky and unnatural. Unconsiously he began to move toward them, treading across the desert sands.

Qive exited the turbolift and stepped out onto a plush velvet rug. Soft music was playing, though from where it was difficult to determine. Looking ahead, Qive saw the unique sight of the Green Luck Casino's "Dinner Conference"; a series of large, transparisteel modules situated as they might be in a resturaunt, yet totally enclosed and shielded from the rest of the world. Server droids and occasionaly well dressed waiters could be seen gliding between the enclosures, large trays in hand or floating on repulsors behind them. The enclosures were tinted and opaqe, but a pair of colored lights above the doorway to the enclosure signaled to the servers whether or not to enter.

Green meant come in.

Yellow was the signal for the server to knock or otherwise announce himself.

Red meant no entry.

Servers loaded to the brim with exquisite platers would stand and wait outside of an enclosure with a red light on, sometimes for an hour or more. They were not to knock or disturb, but woe unto them if they were not ready to serve the food when that light changed to green or yellow.

In the "Dinner Conference" patience was second only to privacy as the motto.

Those souls who spent the exhorbrante amount of money to rent a "table" could do what they liked, at their own pace.

Qive moved forward and was approahced by a human maitrie'd. Qive handed him a small datacard, which was quickly scaned into an electronic guestbook. The maitrie'd led Qive to an enclosure off to one side of the dining hall.

"I shall return in a few minutes to take your order, sir."

The light above the door was green. Qive stepped in, closing the door behind him. The enclosures were rather room, and Qive stood up to his great height rather easily. A large table took up most of the space, along with comfortable, elegant seats. Looking across the table, Qve laid his eyes on the contact.

He was short, and though he had rodent look, with wiry limbs and sharp face, he seemed to bulge in his body frame, giving him a comical look. He was human, or at least near human, and dressed in rough clothing, that he had attempted to brush up to appear more formal.

"Hello."

His voice was best described as annoying. As much as he liked the food at the Green Luck, Qive found himslef wanting to end this meeting as soon as possible.

"Hello."

"So what would you like to order? I think I'll be having..."

Qive's alien hand shot back and hit the do not disturb panel. The light outside the enclosure changed to red.

"I'm not hungry."

"All right, so how is everthing going with you?"

"Nor I am I inclined for idle banter."

The man looked a bit startled.

"I want the information."

The man's face curled into a smile.

"So right to bussiness then. I can handle that."

"Do you have the information?"

The man produced a metallic case from below his seat.

Qive moved toward the table, and the man quickly pulled the case back.

"Lemme see the cash."

Qive reached into his jumpsuit, and removed some credit chips.

"15,000."

He tossed the chips on the table. The man's eyes followed the chips with unabashed greed. They skidded across the table and came to a stop in front of him. He snatched them and stowed them away so quickly Qive never saw where they dissapeared. He moved forward, and watched the man visibly puh the metal case farther back with his foot.

"I'm afraid that I underestimated the value of this information when I talked to you."

Qive stopped.

"I want 50,000 more credits."

"That wasn't part of our agreement."

"I know..... but I took a fairly big risk in obtaining my part of the agreement.... and I was told that money would be no problem."

Qive stared down at the man.

The smile slowly unraveled from his face.

"I'm sure that someone will be willing to pay me..."

He never finished his sentence. Qive pulled out his oversized blaster pistol and pulled the trigger. A pair of blaster bolts slammed into the oversized midsection of the man, sending him flying backwards into the side of the enclosure. Qive walked around the table, kicked his motionless form off of the metallic case, and picked it up. Tossing an extra set of credit chips on the table as a courtesy, he walked toward the door of the enclosure, making sure to press the do not disturb panel again, turning it off. He exited the enclosure and causually walked away...


Tatooine

It seemed so far away. The distance had been deceptive.... distorted by the baking suns and the ultra flat terrain. He had fallen to his knees, unable to gather the strength to stand. He was more seriously injured than he had at first thought, and the loss of blood was taking a serious toll, as was his cracked skin and lack of fluids.

He could feel his grip on life slipping away from him, his vision narrowing,and the brightness of the twin suns dimming though they were at their apex overhead. For some reason however, he fough forward, crawling forward inches at a time, driven by a primal urge to live.

Delerium was settling and the world began to spin. Then all of a sudden, he heard an almost distant roar, and in his failing vision saw a blob approaching him quickly. His hand reached out, but the effort exhasted him and he collapsed to the cracked ground.

The roaring stopped, and with died his hopes of survival. But as the darkness consumed him, her heard distinctly:

"Director Kooror!!!

Ord Biniir
GLF Base

The office Brutus sat in reminded him of his own, and appeared to be modeled after his primary work space at the GLF's headquarters. It was missing an important component however, the chronometer at which Brutus would often stare, affixed, as it wound down to the precise time of another critical GLF action. Fortunately, Brutus had brought that very timepiece along with him, its numbers slowly ticking away another deadline.

But despite that one flaw, the office was almost an exact replica. In fact the entire Ord Biniir base seemed to be a smaller scale model of the GLF's primary base of operations, with a few minor adjustments. The base began on the ground level, as several large duracreet buildings jutting out of the side of a craggy plateau. The base was far removed from any other man-made structures, located in the dusty plains of a rather uninhabited portion of the world. A large fence encircled a large portion of land around the outcroppings, snaking along and enclosing a large section of land. Signs on the fence warned it was charge with electricity, and that the area was private property of Tollur Munitions.

The duracreet buildings did not stop at the rock outcroping which they extended from. Sections of the plateau had been hollowed out, allowing for cavernous spaces to be used. From the plateau, the base moved downward, travelling underground, hundreds, even thousands of feet downward. Some of the deeper levels of the base were designed to be able to have taken a direct orbital bombardment from a Star Destroyer and remain totally intact.

The base's cover was that of a weapons testing ground. Tollur Munitons has been a subsidiary of Orga Industries, a Union affiliated front that had failed to incite an uprising on Sullust, and had since been spun off. The huge expanse of bare land was littered with metallic hulks, discarded weapons and charred debris.

The base existed because of its proximity not only to Hilter Afdol and his Garqi based Agro Incorporated (a short hyperjump away, on a direct line) but alos due to its proximity to the "New Empire" the Imperial territory that had never fallen to the New Republic. (Yaga Minor and the Braxtant Sector being notable examples) It had been chosen as a site for this meeting because it's location was secure, but if it was discovered, the damage would not be too extensive. Brutus had been told personally that Qive was one of the Union's best operatives, but even the best make mistakes. If the alien was being, or traced followed, he didn't want to reveal the secret location of the GLF's primary nexus.

The chronometer beeped. It's numerals were flashing, and showed a full row of zeros. Qive would be arriving any minute now. Brutus got up, deciing he would meet his operative at the front door like a civil guest.

Tatooine

Opening his eyes let in far too much light, and reflexivly, the lids snpped shut. The flutter however obviously attracted attention, because a voice, mechanical sounding and unnatural suddenly spoke, in what seemed to be a volume far too loud for the tone being used.

"Hello. I am pleased to see you have progressed this far. Your treatment has been quite..."

The volume was causing actual pain, and he atempted to raise his hand to cover his vunerable eardrums.

"Oh my. The stimulants. I apolgize."

At the last words, the voulme came down quite suddenly, and moments later the light dimmed to a managable level. He opened his eyes to see an odd looking droid, humanoid in shape, with a chipped but somewhat discernable golden shine on its torso. It conjured up images of a 3P0 protoco droid, but the head was too squat, and its arms were much thinner and seemed to have rather dextrious digits.

"Your treatment has required the use of very poweful stimulants to maintain bodily function. You had lost massive amounts of blood and fluids, and some internal organs were begginning to dissolve. Unfortuntley, our original facilities did not inlude a bacta tank, and I was not able to acess more efficent facilities at the begginning of your treatment, and hence the chemicals."

He understood every word, though his head was filled with sharp pain, as if he had a migraine.

"We had to do major restructing of multiple vital organs and..."

He decided to tes his voice.

"How long have I been out of it."

To his surpise his voice was crisp and clear, and he realized that his throat was smooth and wet, not bone dry as he last remembered it.

"You have been unconsious or semi-coherent for approximantly 13 days. We cannot be for certain because you spent an undetermined amount of time in the Dune Sea and...."

13 days...

He could remember last crawling toward the buildings, his strength exhausted, wondering introspectivly how he had managed to come this far. Why he was in the predicament was his next question, and he searched his memory, but it proved elusive. The droid was droning on, but he had blocked it out. Tuning back in he asked another question.

"Where am I?"

The droid stopped.

"I have been instructed not to inform you of that, because my master wishes to do so personally. That meeting will take place as soon as the last effects of the stimulants wear off so that you can interact without problem. I was about to administer a sedative and several drugs to speed along the process."

He nodded and closed his eyes. Whatever answers awaited him would have to wait a bit longer.

Ord Biniir

The hulking alien had been punctual, arriving at the edge of the base, according to guards, at the exact time the chronometer had reached zero. To help deter a tracking device (seing as an actual tail would hhave been impossible in the current conditions), Qive had stopped at the egde of the compound and delivered a metal case, then taken off again. Though Brutus would miss an oppurtunity to discuss how the information had been obtained, he was happy to know that Qive was maintaing as high a level of secrecy as possible.

Safely back in his office, deep underground, Brutus Nogoth set the case down on his desk. With not a slight bit of anticipation, he opened the case, and began to review their contents...