Nar Shaddaa
2300 hours
Spaceport Gamma-601

“Rebreather” Raist thought to himself before he even opened the cockpit of the X-Wing

The small piece popped into his mouth and nostrils and instantly he could taste the filtering of the air. A small discomfort, in an unforgiving place such as this. With a *whoosh* the cockpit slid open and Raistlin dropped to the ground in a smooth motion. He wasted no time grabbing a rucksack with his belongings and making his way to the main concourse

“Payment?” He heard a voice croak in basic from behind him.

Raist contemplated responding, but knew it wouldn’t get him anywhere. He glared at the heavy-set, blue-skinned Devaronian in front of him and tossed the chubby alien a credit stick. The ear-to-ear smile that crept across his face was reassurance enough and the Seer continued onward with his mission

It had been over a decade since he had been to the Smuggler’s Moon, and from an initial observation, nothing had changed. It had to be one of the worst places in the galaxy to even visit. The air was toxic, the denizens were deadly and the longer you stayed, the worse it was for your health. Raist had no plans to stay any longer then he had to.

Through winding thoroughfare and a little help from the Force, Raist located his initial destination

“The Hutt Hut” he said to nobody in particular. The name itself forced a smirk across his face that stayed for moments after he entered the establishment. Raist appreciated irony, in all its myriad forms.

He had been in plenty of clubs, cantinas and other places where nightlife congregated, this had to be one of the worst of them all. His feet stuck to the ground the moment he entered and Raist suppressed a slight shudder when he thought of what would cause such a reaction.

Were this not the designated meeting point for the slicer that was going to make this job an insurmountable degree of difficulty easier, the Seer would have just left and headed for any one of the other higher class locales on the upper promenade. Instead he scanned the crowd, and although he had been given little information to go on, it didn’t take him long to figure out who he was supposed to meet

With three quick strides, Raist slid into a booth towards the end of a long row by the kitchen. Or what served as one anyway. Across from him was a Devaronian that looked as if he knew the secrets to every Dearh Star ever built. Wiry, with long curved horns and crimson red skin, the alien across from Raistlin glared are him through narrow eyes

“You must try the Nerf Stew, it is raved about across the Outer Rim.” The alien said.

Though the code phrase was more blatantly obvious then Raist felt it should be, he responded back with heavy sarcasm “I have heard wonders about the Rodian chef here, his cuisine is well known on Bespin, where I come from.

Immediately the Devaronian’s form relaxes “I’ve been here for three hours waiting for you!!!” He said almost screaming in a whisper, were such a thing possible. “And I’m almost certain my cover has been blown.” He responded matter-of-factly


“Cut the crap, are we good?” Raist asked, not waiting for an answer. “You’re Jairus Stin, you’re going to slice me in to where I need to get to and I keep you alive. You have already been paid half and will receive the other upon completion. Have I missed anything?” Raist asked again, and as Jairus opened his mouth to respond, the Seer continued “I want you to get up and exit the building, go 3 street down make a left and I will wait for you there.” Raist asked, almost inviting the unsaid question, finally

“And what about you?” Jairus asked

“Testing your paranoia” Raist said.

Jairus looked in disbelief, as if processing what he heard.
Within a minute he had gotten up and made his way to the exit of the Hut. The Seer scanned the crowd, nobody seemed to be interested... he should be good.

As Raist went to stand up he saw 3 aliens break for the exit. Instinctively he broke into a run and despite having to weave through a crowd was able to close the distance with them shortly upon exiting. Raist launched into a tackle of the closest one and perfectly brought him to the ground before popping back up and sprinting after the other two. The Seer turned and fired backwards, hitting the grounded pursuer and killing him with one casual shot.

As they approached the third street he saw the two other aliens turn and Raist ignited his lightsaber staff with a *snap-hiss*. The Seer threw it sideways in such a way that the two pursuers were bisected before they could even turn around to engage him. A horrified Jairus’s mouth dropped not even 2 meters away.

Raist recalled his saber to his hand and deactivated it. “You were right”.” He said. With a half hearted shrug of his shoulders, he continued, “Let’s go.”

Jairus followed him silently


********

“Easier then I thought” Raist said as Jairus worked on the terminal in front of him.

The two of them had gotten into Simple Solutions, a military R&D company that loved selling toys to the highest bidder. Among other things. Raist had planned on infiltrating the building but due to the sensitive nature of this mission, extreme discretion was necessary.

That meant watching Jairus work on a public terminal and keeping watch. Not nearly as exciting as any of the half dozen ways Raist would have gone about this mission, but he understood the Brotherhood’s position, and politics was a messy game he left what felt like a lifetime ago.

“Almost done” Jairus said. Raist didn’t even know what the data was that he was retrieving, only that it could not fall into the hands of the Severian Principate.

With no resistance, the Seer was left to his own thoughts and musings. Indeed during this whole 5 minute process and the initial infiltration into the public building, nobody had even so much as moved in their direction

“All done.” Jairus said, As he disconnected his equipment methodically, Raist took once last glance around to make sure their cover wasn’t blown. They were good.

Jairus handed him the data pad, and Raist asked, almost incredulously, “What is even on here?”

“Well, I’m not a scientist, but it looked like some kind of biological agent, maybe a virus?” Jairus posited. “Either way, I’ll be expecting a payment from ACE in my account within twenty-four hours. Nice working with you.” Jairus said and walked past Raistlin and out the doors of the building.

He didn’t even make it down the stairs, blaster bolts rang out and as Raistlin ran to catch up, he saw the Devaronian dead on the ground, riddled with bolts.

On one hand, the mission was complete, and on the other, he could probably get Jairus’s half of the money if he played his Sabacc hand right. All in all, a pretty successful day for Raistlin