Revan Returns (Ch 12) (Patreon)

Canderous sighs as he, HK-47, and Juhani get blocked into a dead end by some random street thugs.

"This is the fourth time already, don't you people have anything better to do?" They'd already killed three other groups of thugs that have attacked them today, and they'd only been in the town for a few hours!

The lead thug, a rodian, sneers at the mandalorian. "I don't know what you mean old man, but if you hand over the woman and the droid you'll get to live."

Next to him, Canderous can feel Juhani's rage spiking. She's always had a harsh view on slavery after her experiences on Taris, and then that prick who attacked the crew on the infinitesimal chance that he could capture her. It was cathartic for her to kill him, but her emotions still run hot when similar situations come up.

HK chooses now to speak up. "Query: Are you perhaps part of a larger organization, with connections to the criminal underworld?"

The rodian's sneer turns into a smug look as the other nine thugs puff up in pride. "That's right! We are-"

"Don't care." Canderous interrupts his generic monologue. He looks to Juhani and HK. "Since that one's in charge, don't kill him. We could use the information."

The rodian's look of confusion swiftly turns to one of terror as Juhani lights her blue lightsaber and charges at the group with a yowl of anger. HK, meanwhile, has drawn a blaster rifle and already killed the one closest to the exit with a clean shot to the head.

Canderous shakes away the flash of admiration he feels at seeing the protocol/assassin droid's skills. He makes no move to pull out his own repeating blaster, knowing that by the time he begins shooting that the other two will have already slain everyone.

His thought is right on the mark as in a few moments Juhani is plunging her lightsaber into the chest of a blue aqualish. He ignores the slight scent of cooked meat as he approaches the collapsed rodian.

He crouches down as the rodian trembles in fear. "It's late, so here's what we're going to do; I'm going to tie you up. Then you'll take us somewhere to sleep. In the morning, you'll take us to your base. If you do these without doing something stupid, you might live. If you do try something stupid, I'll let the Cathrit at you." He points a thumb over his shoulder at Juhani, and when the rodian looks at her she bares her teeth in a smile promising a painful death.

The rodian opens his mouth to say something, but rapidly closes it at Canderous' next words. "There is nothing for you to say, if you talk it'll probably make it more likely that Juhani will want to kill you."

The rodian nods his head and Canderous pulls a rope out of...somewhere. After tying him up, the rodian guides them to a decently sized house with enough rooms for the two who require sleep. HK stands in the living room to guard the building and keep an eye on the prisoner, the entire time muttering about "inefficient meatbags”.

In the morning they're guided to a warehouse with a sign claiming to hold pod racer parts for something called 'The Boonta Eve Classic'. Inside we find bodies.

Scattered around the entry room is a variety of dead humans, rodians, and aqualish. Canderous kneels down to investigate the body of a dead human while Juhani and HK get on guard.

"Blaster bolt to the chest, but judging by the cauterization, the bolt was weaker than is standard. Could just be crappy weapons..." He mutters his observations to himself as he tries to build a picture of what happened. But it's not until he gets to the third body that he understands what happened.

The rodian's shirt has a long tear in it, and underneath he can see the signature cut of a lightsaber. Quickly going through the rest of the bodies, he sees no signs of the usual harmful Force techniques. No lightning, no choking, and not the shriveled up state bodies are left in when killed by the life drain technique.

"This confirms it. Jedi."

The other two are distracted by his reveal, so the rodian takes the opportunity to run. He rushes to a door at the far end of the room, hoping that if he can get out of their sight that he can escape. He wrenches it open and rushes inside. Right behind him, the others hear a female scream.

As they pass through they see him holding a young togruta with his arm around her throat and a blaster pistol pointed at her head.

"Don't move! If you move she dies!" The girl looks at us with fear and hope in her eyes. Hope that dies when HK speaks.

"Statement: There is a 37% chance that, if shot, the togruta will survive due to the shaking of her captor and the quality of his pistol." Before anyone can say anything to that disturbing statement, they all hear a hiss and the rodian's arm suddenly drops to the floor.

He stares at it uncomprehendingly for a moment before HK shoots him in the head, rendering any further threat neutralized.

The togruta drops to the floor, now free, and crawls to the side of the hallway, looking between the ragtag group who have just entered, and the two Jedi who'd saved her and the other illegal slaves.

Quinlan Vos speaks. "Well now, this just got more complicated."