The Vertical City, Nar Shaddaa. They call it the Smuggler's Moon—an apt description based on the myriad of sentients shuffling back and forth with their illegal wares and hidden weapons. The narrow streets below criss-cross endlessly, soaring miles above the planet's surface. Exposed and uncovered, the streets offer a nearly perfect setting for someone with some skills with ranged weapons. A vantage point on the ledge of a towering structure of glass and steel offers a dizzying view of the cityscape.

Simple shops and merchants peddle both legitimate and illegitimate wares. Storefronts are just as plentiful as open-market pop-up tents, and the cantina's adapt the same lowlife air as the rest of the Smuggler's Moon. Enemies could be hidden in plain sight, whether one of the Hutts’ gangsters or mercenaries-for-hire looking to earn some credits. The streets are plagued with violent gangs and the general riff raff of the poor and destitute. They may be an ideal place for blasters, but the winding streets are difficult to disappear from. An opponent would be easily boxed in and simple to finish with a few quick slashes of a lightsaber. The moon is dangerous—even for one gifted in the Force.

“Are you sure this is the place?”

“Of course I’m sure this is the place!”

“Selika Roh, Dread Lord of Plagueis, left on a mysterious mission without telling anyone where she was going and hasn’t contacted anyone because she is…” The human raised his eyes to read the glowing neon sign on the building at the end of the street. “Gambling at the Slug’s Delight? That doesn’t quite sound like the Dread Lord to me.”

TuQ’uan Varick glanced back over his shoulder at the latest member to return to House Tyranus, Saal Kesyk. The two of them had been sent on a simple mission, find the Dread Lord. Selika had disappeared without a trace, without any communication and without giving anyone a reason why besides rumours. And the latest rumour was that Nora’s thirst for power had led to her dispatching the Dread Lord in order to seize control of the clan for herself. But TuQ didn’t actually believe that, Nora wasn’t that power hungry…or was she?

He left that line of thinking behind and tipped his hat back with his finger and cocked his eyebrow at his Sith companion.

“Now, which of us has spent more time with her dreadfulness? I think this is exactly the kind of place she would visit,” TuQ replied. They had been chasing leads across the galaxy along a path that wove its way towards the core region, the latest intel they found indicated that Selika may have stopped on the smuggler’s moon of Nar Shadaa recently. TuQ was dedicated to the mission, but if he happened to earn a few credits playing some sabaac, well that was just a part of the job. “I have a contact here that claims to have information, so in the name of the Ascendant Clan, we follow any leads we can.”

Saal simply shook his head in response as the Kel Dor laughed and rolled a set of dice in his hand. Motion at the mouth of a nearby alley caught TuQ’s attention. With a sigh he changed their direction to meet the hooded figure waving them over.

“Over here, hat!” the figure called out in a cross between a shout and a whisper, his head swinging from side to side as if looking for unfriendly faces on the street. When Mosh had told them to meet at the Slug’s Delight, TuQ thought he meant inside, not in an alley down the street and away from the tables.

“What have you got for us?”

“Come, come. Follow me,” was the only response Mosh gave as he made his way deeper into the alley, walking with a stoop that looked like he was constantly bent over looking at his feet.

“I have a bad feeling about this, I don’t trust that man,” Saal whispered just loud enough for TuQ to hear it. TuQ merely waved his hand and continued to follow.

Saal’s hand suddenly gripped his Quaestor’s arm and yanked him to the side, a crimson bolt narrowly missed TuQ’s shoulder as he spun around, back hitting the duracrete wall of the alley. Cursing, a new figure stood between them and the way they’d come, the shadows obscuring their face.

“Mosh? What’s going on?” the Kel Dor asked. Mosh’s figure no longer looked so small and frail, instead he stood tall and strong, the look of worry and paranoia melted away. The faint light from the street glinted off Mosh’s eyes giving them a golden-red glow, his hood pulled back revealing the features of the Weequay’s face, a smirk growing across it.

“So, should we get out of here?” Without waiting for a response, TuQ rushed forward and drew his blaster, opening fire on his alleged informant. Without a moment’s hesitation Saal fingered the switch on his lightsaber, a deep red glow bathed the walls of the alley as the Sith’s crimson blade hummed to life. Flashes lit the area as Saal deftly batted away the oncoming fire, backing away from Mosh’s companion. As the man concentrated his fire on Saal, the Sith took a deep breath and drew upon the Force letting it fill him before unleashing a telekinetic blast at his attacker.

The force of the blow slammed into the figure’s jaw like an uppercut from a shockboxer, throwing him onto his back. A crack rang out as his skull hit the ground hard. Satisfied, Saal spun on his heel, whipping his blade to the side as he surveyed the situation behind him. He watched TuQ finish closing the gap between himself and Mosh.

The mercenary leapt forward in an attempt to tackle his opponent, but the deceptively large Weequay used the momentum to his advantage and shoved TuQ to the side and into the ground. He landed with a thud, the wind knocked from his lungs.

“Well, that hurt,” he groaned and rolled over. He met Mosh’s eyes as the man reached down and grabbed him by his jacket’s collar. “Ready for round two I guess?”

The Weequay’s eyes were brimming with malice, a wide grin forming across his face as he held the Kel Dor’s collar.

“You know how it goes in Nar Shadaa, Tuq,” Mosh said, before raising his left fist. “Credits talk, and as much as you’re willing to pay for this intel, it seems like others have a vested interest in keeping it out of your claws.”

“We can be reasonable, Mosh,” replied the Quaestor. “I have a counteroffer that you might be interested in.”

Just before the Weequay went to strike, he yelled out in agony as the Plagueian plunged his vibrodagger into the traitor’s left arm. He toppled over off of Tuq, giving the mercenary enough time to reclaim his footing and kick the downed opponent in the gut. He brushed his coat and his pants off before replacing his hat, which had fallen off in the scuffle.

“We’re taking you in, Mosh,” said Tuq. “You’re going to give me what I came for. When we recover our Consul, she can decide what to do with what’s left of you.”

“Watch out Tuq, we’ve got more company.”

Upon hearing the words of his Sith companion, the hat-adorned mercenary spun around to see several goons approaching from both sides of the alleyway, brandishing vibroswords, their blasters holstered.

“Put your weapons down,” exclaimed the Sith Warrior. His lightsaber in his right hand, he casually pointed it at the crowd that was approaching his flank. “By the authority of Clan Plagueis, I command you to surrender. There is no need for you to lose your lives just because your buddy is an idiot.”

The group stopped, looked at each other, and then burst into laughter.

“The only authority we recognize around here is money, kid,” clamored one of the thugs amidst the laughter of his comerades. “We don’t recognize the authority of Clan Plagueis on these streets.”

In response, the Sith merely smile. It was as though this was the response he had hoped for.

“You’ll recognize the authority of Clan Plagueis on these streets when they’re painted in your blood.”

In a flash, the young Sith leapt towards the opposition, his crimson blade piercing through the heart of a Rodian that had readied his vibrosord to attack. He withdrew his weapon and spun to take his next victim, hacking and slashing from all angles as the Twi’lek goon struggled to block his vicious, heavy blows. The Sith feinted a strike to the legs before swinging his blade high, and his opponent was separated from his head. The viciousness with which he felled his enemy caused the group to buckle in fear before snapping out of it and readying themselves to gang up on the human.

Tuq, meanwhile, was holding his own.

KLANK! KLANK!

His vibrosword rose to meet every strike from his attacker, redirecting and counter-striking with ease. As another attacker approached his left, he relinquished his DL-44 and popped two rounds from the hip, instantly felling the would-be attacker, who fell with a thud. His other opponent attempted a lunge, to which Tuq replied by moving to the right and clearing the attack, before sending a blaster bolt into his opponent’s head.

Despite the proficiency with which both Plagueians fought, they were outnumbered heavily, and their respective opposition had encroached upon both flanks to the point where they were now back-to-back amidst a sea of surrounding enemies.

“‘You’ll recognize the authority of Clan Plagueis on these streets when they’re painted in your blood’?” Despite being surrounded, Tuq seemed unfazed by the circumstances in which he found himself. “You’ve been using that thing for a while. You do know lightsabers cauterize wounds, right?”

“Yeah, it just seemed like a good line,” the Sith responded, shrugging.

“It was an okay line. Any ideas for how to get out of this one?” The mercenary had begun to notice even more enemies piling in. “I didn’t exactly prepare for murdering an entire gang today.”

“Not to worry.” At these words, Saal pushed a button on his com link, and a red light began to blink. “We are more alike than you might think. I always try to keep a card up my sleeve.”

“Surrender Plageuians.” Mosh had returned from amidst the crowd, blaster in hand. “There’s no need to drag this out.”

“You’re exactly right! Let’s go out with a bang.”

The mechanized voice came from a nearby rooftop, and the crowd looked up to find an IG-86 assassin droid looking down below at them. Before Mosh could respond, blaster bolts began to rain down from the heavens, and he ran to find cover behind a nearby dumpster.

The enemy lines broke, as those that weren’t picked off by the droid’s blaster fire also clamored for cover from the slaughter. Saal and Tuq used this chaos to their advantage, slaying those that were in their path as they too took refuge behind a nearby stack of durasteel crates and prepared to aim their DL-44 blasters behind the cover. It was then that they noticed that the traitor Mosh had begun to flee the alleyway.

“You got this?” TuQ asked as he leveled his blaster, aiming at the fleeing Weequay.

“What?” Saal cried over the sound of blaster fire. TuQ squeezed the trigger of his DL-44, the shot barely missed its target, instead leaving a hole through Mosh’s cloak. He cursed and took aim once more.

“You got this.” He pulled the trigger and loosed a bolt towards the end of the alleyway where it bit into Mosh’s calf. A string of expletives echoed off the walls. “That’ll buy us some time, won’t get too far too quick with a shot to the leg.”

“Were you talking to me, or yourself?” Saal asked as he continued to keep their attackers at bay. TuQ simply looked at the DL-44 in his hand instead of answering the question, he was ashamed to admit that he was actually talking to his blaster. They’d have to get moving soon or it wouldn’t matter how wounded Mosh was, one could easily disappear in the Nar Shaddaa underground. As the bolts continued to pelt the wall and bin, TuQ turned to his companion.

“You got this?” he asked fiddling with something on his belt. He got no response. “That time I was talking to you.”

Saal looked over as his Quaestor tossed a black cylinder towards him. The Sith looked at the sonic grenade in his hand.

“Toss that and have Dex do some clean up,” TuQ ordered as he jumped up and ran after Mosh.

Saal looked down at the device and then towards the Kel Dor as he dashed away. The Hat was certainly living up to the reputation. He quickly pressed the activator and tossed it over his shoulder towards the group of thugs laying down blaster fire. Squeezing his eyes closed and pressing his hands to his ears, Saal took a breath and waited.

TuQ skidded to a halt as reached the end of the alley, spotting some commotion to his right, he spun and took off at a run. A sudden, deafening sonic blast erupted from the alley.

Saal opened his eyes and shook his head trying to remove the faint ringing from his ears. Nearby, the thugs stood disoriented, some crouching on the ground, others holding their heads.

“Dex, you got this!” Saal shouted up at the IG-86 droid standing on the rooftop before taking off after TuQ.

His legs tensed as he ran, a warmth growing through them, the power of the Force strengthening his muscles with every stride, pumping faster and faster as the walls began to blur. The Sith burst from the mouth of the alley and spun to find TuQ’s hat bouncing through the crowded street in hot pursuit of their informant. He took off, closing the distance in a matter of strides and quickly passing the Kel Dor, he spotted the hobbling figure pushing past various species in a desperate attempt at escape.

TuQ grumbled as he now brought up the rear. When he finally caught up, Saal had Mosh cornered on a dead end street. The non-Force user took advantage of the lull in the action to catch his breath. Pulling out a vibrodagger from wherever it was that TuQ kept all of the blades he traveled with, he proffered it to the Sith.

“Did you still want to, what was it? ‘Paint the streets with his blood?’” TuQ asked with a chiding tone, his eyes locking with the Weequay.

A look of sheer defiance spread across the scoundrel’s face as he evaluated the circumstances in which he now found himself.

“You’ll never get anything out of me scum. Do your worst.”

The Sith Equite merely laughed in response.

“Do you think I need this to get you to talk?” He held the knife high, pointing it at the criminal. “This is for my own satisfaction.”

A group of civilians who had noticed the commotion when the Plagueians cornered their prey had now begun to form a small crowd as they looked on at the trio. Noticing this, Saal stretched his hand out towards their captive.

“This ought to clear them out,” he said, glancing over at Tuq.

A loud crackling sound rang out as several strands of red electricity emitted from the Sith Warrior’s fingers, connecting with the Weequay’s body. As the criminal writhed in pain, his screams echoed throughout the street, and so too did the screams of fear from the crowd as they quickly dispersed. Tuq rolled his eyes as his Sith companion laughed in response.

“Your left hand is your trigger hand, right?” Said Saal, grabbing Mosh’s left wrist. “You sure that there isn’t anything you want to tell me?”

“You’ll never-“

Mosh once again screamed in agony. Before he could say anything, Saal had removed his left index finger.

“Too slow, Mosh.” Before his victim could respond, Saal had once again struck the Weequay with lightning, searing his skin even further.

“I’m glad to see that Saal is enjoying himself.” Dex had arrived just in time to witness the culmination of the mission.

“Glad that you made it for the party, Dex,” said TuQ’uan, raising his voice so that the IG unit could hear over the screams of their mark, who was now being flayed by Saal.

“The Weequay have tough skin. It even provides them minimal protection from light blaster fire,” the droid said, matter-of-factly. “At this point, this could take a while.”

The droid was wrong. After a few more minutes of torture, Mosh relented.

“KAPSINA!” He yelled amidst another round of Force lightning. “She’s headed to Kapsina!”

Saal rolled his eyes, clearly disappointed. “You’re no fun.”

“Of course,” said Tuq, his eyes now widened amidst this revelation. “We’ve got to get going.”

“Not so fast.”

A new voice could now be heard, and Tuq groaned as the Plagueians turned around to see a new figure, accompanied this time by a group of B2 Super Battle Droids. Their new opponent wore a half mask that covered the bottom half of their face, framed by the hood that connected to their black cloak.

“We really don’t have time for this,” said the Quaestor. “We’ve had enough trouble today.”

At these words, a lightsaber hilt flew to their opponent’s hand, igniting and emitting a dark purple blade.

“Well, I guess now we have time,” said Saal, who in turn ignited his own lightsaber. He then turned and plunged his crimson blade into Mosh’s abdomen, who let out a final gasp before his corpse slumped down onto the pavement. “This is going to take all three of us - no use in trying to keep up with him too. If you two can draw out those droids, I’ll take the creepy one.”

Tuq and Dex readied their blasters as the B2 droids took aim.

As the streets erupted in flashes of red and yellow, Saal leapt into the air towards his opponent, augmenting his jump with the For e as he prepared to strike down at the Dark Jedi. Their blades connected, and in a flurry, the two were now at work, their lightsabers clashing and redirecting as they hacked away at each other. Tuq and Dex were shooting at the droids, dodging and weaving in and out of blaster fire as the battle went underway.

“We need cover,” said Dex, his vocoder barely audible over the sounds of the firefight as he shot one of the B2s.

“Take to the rooftops, droid,” said Tuq. He moved as a blaster bolt narrowly grazed his hat. “I’ve got another ace.” The Plagueian fidgeted with one of the pockets on his utility belt, before removing a grenade.

At these words, Dex leapt up and grabbed a hold of a terrace which was jutting off the side of a nearby building. He let loose a few more shots of his other blaster before holstering it and beginning to climb to the top. As the IG unit scaled the building, Tuq activated his jet pack and was at once in the air. The pressure from the attack was now split between the droid on the rooftop and the Kel Dor in the air, both of whom let loose an array of blaster bolts on the crowd of B2s.

Saal was still engaged with the Dark Jedi. As their blades locked, the Sith pushed his free hand towards his opponent, who flew backwards, backflipped, and then regained their footing. The Sith charged at them, and in response his enemy used the Force to pick one of the Super Battle Droids up, hurling it at Saal. With a swing of his saber, the droid was cut in two.

Tuq was now flying high above the street. He popped off a couple of blaster bolts before activating the EMP grenade, which he then threw down at the crowd of droids. Upon impact, a wave of blue electromagnetic energy pulsed across the ground, spreading amongst the B2s as they sizzled before falling to the ground with a collection of thuds.

The Dark Jedi had now let loose a collection of their own lightning, which they aimed at Saal, who raised his own hand in response. The lightning met with an invisible wall, tapering off as it hit the barrier.

“Saal! I’ve got this!” The Sith looked up to see his quaestor high in the air.

Tuq aimed his DL-44 at the enemy, releasing a barrage of rapid shots. The enemy halted their attack to raise their lightsaber in a hasty defense. Their eyesight encumbered by the array of blaster fire, the shadowy warrior failed to see that Saal had closed in on them. With a flash of red, the opponent’s upper torso was separated from their body.

Saal, breathing heavily, de-ignited his lightsaber as Tuq came to a land.

“These droids are Plagueian units,” said Dex, who was now bent over the deactivated B2s. “House Ventress, to be exact.”

“That adds up,” said Tuq, holstering his blaster before re-centering his infamous hat. “I could smell the stench of Sith infighting when I saw that purple blade.”

“Hey now,” interjected Saal. “As an infighter by proxy, I take offense to that.”

“Some of you are a little more tolerable than others,” responded Tuq, examining the remains of their now-identified enemy.

“I’ll take what I can get,” responded the Sith. “So what’s next?”

“I hope you brought your Sabaac deck,” he said, looking up at his companions. “It looks like we’ll have some time to play.”

He removed his data pad, the screen of which illuminated as he accessed a starmap and began typing away. The image of a barren planet appeared on his screen. Saal and his IG unit huddled around it.

“We’re headed to Kapsina.”