Some time ago... (Transcript)

[Charlotte]

As Beatdown Town was currently under renovations for the third time this week, the majority of it's target audience had shifted to a newly reopened casino known as 'The King's Ransom'. For the most part, it was a simple casino..with it's bar of alcoholic beverages, and it's gambling rooms. But what made this casino so different, and perhaps so popular, was it's main room which housed a single throne in the center, with the area being marked off with ray shields.

The game was simple; Constestants would pay the fee to play, and would enter the room inbetween each level of the ray shield. From then on, it was more or less a 'Last Man Standing' type battle, with the credits going to the person to sit in the Throne the longest in the set amount of time. In a VIP Booth overlooking the Throne Room sat Maltez Buffton and a few of his more trusted followers, overlooking the game that was about to begin. Upon arriving in the building, the Boss had sent out a request to the Mechanic to join him, for their long-delayed discussion.

Even after the request had reached him, Sadhric was slow to make an appearance. When he finally did, navigating the casino to get to Maltez's booth, he lingered and eavesdropped for a few minutes on people who were talking about their bets and the contestants. Eventually, he went up to the VIP booth and took a moment more to size up Maltez' entourage. There wasn't anything conclusive about the fact that Vahn wasn't present, but it might have been telling if he had been. He'd probably have been smirking or something equally irritating.

Maltez didn't stand, but the other members of his entourage did, and they shuffled around to make room for the Mechanic, and to give him a front row seat for the upcoming contest, while making sure every other seat was occupied. "Mr. Tlin.. Welcome. Please, make yourself at home." The Buffton spoke calmly, and motioned to the open chair. Down below, various alien species and humanoids alike gathered, and began to continue placing their bets for the upcoming event.

Sadhric went around and took the seat, glancing at Maltez for only a moment. His Lenses were on, but almost clear. "Thanks. I trust you had a good trip? Killed lots of people?--or whatever else passes for smalltalk around here."

The Buffton smirked slightly, glancing only partially at Sadhric, though keeping his attention mainly on the main floor down below. "It was..fruitful, to say the least. How have things been here?" Down below, more and more beings were gathering, including one The Mechanic would recognize, being one Captain Vahn.

"Smooth, thanks. Besides having various elements spy and draw weapons on me, you run a tight ship." He was, in fact, specifically looking for Vahn. When he finally caught sight of him, he said, "Oh, good, I'm glad he had time to get here before we actually started saying anything interesting." He shrugged, though, and leaned back in his seat. "You don't really seem like the sort of man who would hire a Force-user, unless you had something on him. What's Vahn's 'something'?"

Vahn didn't make his way up, however, but merely shifted with the crowd, moving into the interior of the ray shields. It was clear he would be a participant of the day's contest. Maltez grinned towards Sadhric. "You're right..there aren't many of those Force-Users I would be able to make use of..but Vahn there, he's a special case. He has no ambitions of saving the Galaxy, or conquering. He just wants to get by...so I pay him well, and he does what I say. Tis a shame he wasn't better trained, though."

"You told him to pull a blaster on me in the lab?"

"No. Of course not. That was more of an act of desperation on his part."

"Right. Desperate Force-user with security access. Very nice." But he was shrugging. "It's unimportant; I was only curious. I figure people try to stick their noses in my business all the time. It was that he was so fucking obvious about it that bugged me."

"He's still getting used to this world that we live in, Mr. Tlin. He was once an Enforcer for a small pirate group in the Outer Rim..he's used to just using force to get his way. Easy to see why he didn't fit in with the preppy Jedi bunch, isn't it?" The ray shields were activated now, and the countdown had begun for the time the battle would be underway. Vahn was calm, focused, almost motionless, just waiting for the fight to get started.

Sadhric didn't respond to that, just seemed to fade out watching the contestants below, and not just Vahn, either. When he did talk again, it was to say, "Something new has come up." He cocked his head to one side. "A complication I hadn't foreseen. I would like to discuss it with you in private." There was an odd note in Sadhric's tone when he said that last part, which mystically turned it into the question: You completely trust the people here, right now? A question that you have to ask.

There was a slight moment of silence, in which the others that were sitting around them looked to one another, with a general feeling of 'We know we're trusted. He won't..' "Leave us." The Buffton spoke up calmly, dousing any beliefs in those gathered with him that they were special. Single-file, they stood and marched out of the balcony, which sealed itself off with a small shielding system. "This is about as private as it gets, Mr. Tlin. What have you discovered?"

Down below, the interior shields had opened, allowing all members of the battle access to the throne, and each other. Those watching the battle began to cheer as the first fisticuffs broke out, which involved Vahn, who nearly took the head off of an angry looking rodian with a single double-ax handle swing.

The pause lasted about as long as it took for Vahn to engage the Rodian. And then Sadhric said: "The Altar's logic. And I think I can track down the artifact itself with what I know. But that's not the problem." His smile was small, and a little ironic. "The problem is... that if someone came to me with this exact same information, I would laugh in their face before spacing them. I cannot provide proof that I'm right about anything in relation to it. I cannot reproduce any effect. I do not have any of the solid evidence that I would normally demand from anyone else. What I have is a perfect example of a bubble of reasoning that gets shredded when you subject it to what we know as rational physical laws. If I were a Force-user, I might be able to provide the bridge between what it is and what it is supposed to do, but I'm not. Without that element, I have nothing that would convince anyone to believe that I'm correct, or, more importantly, to provide any resources whatsoever to the destruction of this thing."

Vahn ducked an incoming swing at his head and kicked out with his right foot, snapping a Wookiee's knee backwards and sending the hairy beast to the ground. Maltez's attention left the fight for a moment to stare at the Mechanic. "And the fact that you previously mentioned Vahn could mean you suggest he provide this next step? You think he could be of use to you?"

The look on Sadhric's face was one of subdued surprise--not because of what Maltez had just said, but because something unrelated had just occurred to him. He blinked, and then shook his head. "He's a taillicker. I brought him up because he thought he made a decent stand-in for you, and because he pissed me off." The Mechanic breathed in deeply, and exhaled slowly. "No... You see, I don't think I can squeeze any evidence out of the fragment that you have. And yet the math is flawless. I couldn't have deluded myself so perfectly. So I guess the real problem is that I know I'm right, and I have no way of convincing anyone else that I am. So I'm going to have to lie."

"But you say a Force-User could pull more information? From what, if not the fragment?"

He shook his head again. "It's not information that's missing. If you had never seen a hyperdrive before, didn't know anything about tech of that kind, and you suddenly found one, disconnected from all of its power sources, what would you be able to make of it? And what if the power sources weren't just missing? What if they were of a kind that you could not reproduce at all? You could probably reason out, from seeing what is connected where, that something is supposed to happen that requires that configuration. And you could probably reason out a lot of how the energy was supposed to flow through the device. But without the right power source, you couldn't make it work without modifying it, right? That's the problem here. That's alien tech you've got in there, and it doesn't run on anything that I have access to. At least that's one way to look at it. Whatever element the Force is supposed to provide in the Altar, I cannot reproduce it myself. But that's not the relevant part, Buffton. That's not the part that will get me what I want."

"Then here is the ultimate question...In your mind, your calculations..how valuable is this fragment? How likely is it to be easily reproduceable by Moonrider? Is he lost without it, or simply pushed back a couple of months?" Maltez was staring hard at Sadhric now, needing this answer more than anything.

Sadhric frowned. "I can't even answer that," he said in frustration. "I don't know how much he understands about it. He might have a fucking step-by-step instruction manual for all I know." That not being on his home turf with this matter was stressing him out was obvious. For once, his exasperation was very clearly aimed at himself. "But I believe the Resistance and the Alliance must assume that he can continue without it. I think Ashton is too arrogant right now to have lied about it; I think this thing is supposed to enable him to merge with Mekhetu. If that happens, we're screwed, because all of the things that I know are limiting her right now will cease to be sure-things. It all gets thrown into the air. He'll be sitting there with every single high card."

He was pretty sure he sounded like a lunatic, and he hated it. But he was stating things as if he believed them absolutely because he had to state them that way. If he didn't, if he was saying what he really thought, his words would be conveying solid and towering uncertainty, and that wouldn't get him anywhere.

Of course, the Buffton wasn't exactly thrilled with that response, but he believed it. For now, anyway. The Boss gazed down onto the makeshift battlefield, with Vahn was still in the thick of the fight, and oddly enough, he hadn't even been scratched yet..though several limp bodies laying around would tell of a different outcome. "..I know this isn't entirely your realm..but do you have any advice? Any thoughts?"

"Yes," Sadhric said, his focus sharpening again immediately. "I would like to order one devastating military defeat, please. Ours."

Slowly, he turned his head back to face the Mechanic. "Not much for miracles, are you?"

Sadhric met his look frankly. "They don't work for me." But he was completely serious, and it showed. "What I need," he said evenly, "is a story that will hold water long enough to shake up the Resistance and the Alliance Powers That Be. It only has to stand up to scrutiny long enough for them to get freaked out enough to hunt this thing down and destroy it. Blackmoon would listen to me, and take my advice, but Blackmoon isn't in charge. The people who are in charge won't even speak to me. ... And then there's you. They know who you are. They know that you have resources you haven't disclosed, but they don't know what kind or the quantity. You and your forces are known and unknown to them at the same time. I need to manufacture a defeat, even if it's purely fictional, and you're the perfect candidate."

"Consider my interest peaked." He was grinning again, obviously taking the statement about him and his forces as one of the highest compliments possible. "What did you have in mind?"

"Let's pretend that Ashton has finished his toy, and let's pretend that he wants to test it out somewhere...."

"Let's."

Sadhric nodded. "So if this trial run were executed in a place that's on the edge of the influence of the Alliance and Resistance, that would be bad news for them, because they might hear about it, but be unable to investigate fully. But there might be some transmissions that were made before there were no, or few, survivors, so they might still have an idea that something nasty had happened that couldn't simply have been avoided with better strategy, or greater numbers. And perhaps a Force sensitive person or two might have felt something terrible, don't you think? Something frightening."

"Most interesting.. You have my full support." He grinned once more, even as the battle down below became even bloodier.

"I can provide all of the data that I have to you," The Mechanic said. "I will answer any questions that you have, pro or con."

"Unfortunately..the first question is cost. How much will be required to actually be lost on my part?"

"How much do you think they would believe that you have?"

"Rose hasn't seen my fleet since its early days..and I doubt anyone else has really paid attention to it. So..possibly one-fourth of what I actually have."

"In theory," Sadhric said, "if this is handled well enough, what you actually lose may be dwarfed by what they can be led to believe you have lost. The greater the loss, the greater their fear that it can and will happen to them. I don't even care if it looks anything like whatever might actually happen with the Altar. You could say half your fleet was atomized if you can make it look good long enough."

Maltez nodded silent for a few moments, before answering, "I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to rig partially built ships to look like destroyed ships, either.."

The Mechanic appeared, once again, to be watching the fight below, and though he nodded slightly he waited as if he was sure Maltez was going to say something else.

The gears were churning in the Buffton's head, while he watched over the battle that was still taking place. They were down to just a handful of individuals doing battle, with Vahn..not being as uninjured as before, but still being better off than most that were still standing. "Where do you think would be best? We currently have partial control of the Perlemain Trade Route and nearby systems. The Chiss have the Tion Cluster, the Resistance is not far off from Gala..and my own Forces have pushed into the Deep Core."

"Keep it away from the Chiss entirely," Sadhric said. "They'd pick it apart for no reason other than to feel smug about it."

He twitched ever so slightly at that, then sighed. "I've been preparing an attack on Fondor..an attack I'd rather not lose before certain objectives are met. Could you work with that?"

"How you handle this is up to you," Sadhric told him. "My participation would be purely on the misinformation end--and damage control, if necessary. But consider working within your power. This does not have to be very intricate if you own everyone involved. If the investigators who can 'arrive' fastest belong to you, then you can have them say whatever you want them to say. And it's that first punch that will knock the wind out of the people who need to be shocked the most."

And he was smiling again. Not the typical smirk, or grin of a Buffton..but a sly smile. "I believe I have the perfect plan.."

Sadhric laughed a little, his own smile quite lopsided. "I figured you might get inspired."

A soft gasp going through the crowds brought Maltez's attention back to the battle, where only two beings were left in the fight. Vahn, and an armored Zabrak. They were slugging it out in a vile fashion, standing right across the throne, with time starting to run out. So far, neither man had really had time to 'sit', so it was possible the money could go to no one, unless one of them could maneuver enough to be considered 'sitting'.

"Just one more thing. I haven't talked to anyone else about this--nor do I intend to. Who you bring in, and how much you tell them, is up to you, of course, but there's no one else who will be made aware of it by me."

"Of course..Thank you, Sadhric. You're worth all the trouble after all." Buffton grin. Down below, Vahn was standing on the throne now, holding the Zabrak up and punching him in the face. The countdown was almost over, and just as the 'brak hit the ground, and Vahn dropped down onto the seat of the Throne, the chime rang through the building indicating the end of the match.

[Charlotte]

Amidst the fighting down below the balcony, several laser shots are heard, and then a moment of silence as a black armored figure moved through the room. "Pardon me." A mechanized voice said, moving toward a turbolift cooly through security and up to the secured balcony where he was summoned. The door slid open, and two figures were easily in view. "You rang, Maltez?" Then, upon recognization, a nod given to the other man, "Tlin." He said, approaching the two. "There's some party down there, eh?"

Sadhric looked back, and the thought that struck him was not that this was Xavier Buffton, but that Xavier Buffton had the most uncanny timing imaginable. Before this stage of the discussion, a new arrival would have made The Mechanic clam up instantly. And not much long after this, he'd have excused himself and gone back to do whatever it was that he spent his time doing. So, yes, he'd showed up at precisely the right moment. Sadhric found himself wondering if his miraculous timing ever cost other people their lives. He nodded to the second Buffton, and then glanced back down at Vahn. "He does this often, doesn't he...." He meant Vahn, of course. "Relieving job-stress."

"Yes, he does. Makes me quite a bit of money when he does it." Maltez smirked, while turning the chair around to face his arriving brother. "Ah, Xavier. Good timing. You're here in time to register for the next contest..after they clean up the previous participants."

"Nahhh..." He said casually...yet mechanized in the helmet. "You know that, unlike you, I take no pleasure in random acts of violence. And here I thought you had something important to tell me. For instance, news on my daughter? Because I'm SURE you're doing all that's possible to get her free sitting here on your ass in a bar."

Suddenly a loud cry rang out through the building, "Death to the Capitalist Swine!" And several blaster shots flew towards the Buffton's balcony. Luckily, the shielding surrounding the exterior of said balcony held, and the powerful rifle shots were absorbed. All attention was put on the attacker, though most turned away from him as he was put down with extreme prejudice. Maltez barely bat an eye, as he kept focused on Xavier. "Of course I am, Xavier..but you're stressed. I know this. You could use some random acts of violence after I give you some news. ..but first you have to go downstairs."

"Does it require me to remove my helmet?"

"...Only if you want to."

"Don't plan on it. Lets go."

Maltez politely excused himself from Sadhric, before stepping out of the balcony, and motioning for Xavier to follow. He steps into the turbolift, and waits for his brother to join him. Down below, droids were busy dragging unconscious and injured bodies off of the arena floor, while Vahn sat atop the throne still as was the tradition of winning. He'd be automatically enlisted into the next battle, and also the main target, as he had the odds more in his favor.

Xavier followed his brother, like always, poor guy never did get a lot of credit for himself and gazed up at the not-so-humbled winner of the previous few matches. "Hmm. I see. We get to take him out? Is there a price? And what's my cut?"

"Last man standing rules..take everyone else out, and sit on the throne. If you win, you get the pot..which is around twenty thousand credits right now. And yes, my man Vahn will be one of the guys you'll have to take out." Maltez grinned as the elevator lowered itself to the bottom level of the building, where they were almost ready to fight once more.

"Wait...you aren't fighting with me?"

"Not this time. Wouldn't be very fair for both of us to go into the battle."

"What gives..?" Xavier lilted a bit as the turbolift halted and suddenly, a few men came over and started taking both of their weapons. "Security measures only, sirs. Don't take it personally." They said to Xavier and Maltez together. "So..." Xavier growled a bit as his precious Deathhammers and Tibanna Rifle was taken right off of his back. "What was it that you wanted to tell me, brother?"

The other fighters were beginning to get into place, and shields were starting to come up. "You..uh, go ahead and get into place there. Right beside the limping Wookiee."

Xavier narrowed his eyes toward Maltez, though he couldn't see them beneath the 360 view helmet...which would probably be a nice advantage in a fight, as well as the durasteel pretty much covering every inch of his body. "This is ridiculous, Maltez. I'm not going to wait around for much longer if you keep this nonsense up."

Maltez peered around, and then signaled off in the distance, which brought up a ray shield around Xavier. Almost everyone else was in place. "You see..about Xai..."

"You got her back? Where is she? Is she alright? Wait..." He blinked at the ray shield, "What the hell is going on??"

"No.." Everything was set up, and a timer was preparing to go off. "She's with the Dark Lord Phobos. But that's not just it..She's pregnant..and she's going to marry Halran." Just as his last words were spoken, the tone sounded, and the interior shielding dissipated. The limping Wookiee went after Xavier immediately, trying to wrap it's large furry paws around the Buffton's neck.

Xavier was...surprisingly calm and silent, though a heavy inhale could be heard through his helmet. As the wookiee grabbed for him, he turned, very nonchalantly to his brother and said cooly, "Scuse me." And rammed a hard, gloved fist right into the already-injured wookiee's chestplate, driving the furry alien's body completely backwards and onto the floor, but Xavier followed relentlessly, and before the sentient could stand, rammed a spiked boot down into it's neck, twisting until the sound of bones crunching underfoot resonated disgustingly throughout.

Few in the fight had bothered to wear armor, including the Wook. He went down like a large pile of furry crap, and was killed almost as quickly as he had gone down. Others in the fight who had saw that considered it a moment, before turning towards him. Apparently, it was decided to take out the armored Buffton first. Two short rodians rushed Xavier simultaneously, one aiming for his left leg, and the other diving upwards at his chest.

Xavier jumped upwards, just a bit too easily it seemed, and with a low rumble as his jetpack engaged. The Rodian aiming for his leg completely missed and went flying into a wall while the one heading for his chest found his own rude awakening with Xavier's boots to the head. The skull cracked with the collision and the being fell to the floor. Xavier looked down at the rather, perturbed crowd, and cleared his throat a bit, "Sorry." He apologized, as he lowered himself back down to the floor. "It's just that, I get a bit carried away at times..."

The other still-living Rodian dove onto the bounty hunter's back, trying to rip off the jetpack, however it was just a bit too easy for Xavier, being a stout 6'4" and in great shape for his age, to grab the little green man and toss him clear across the room in a clean, fell swoop of his arms. The Rodian collided against the far wall, and slid down to the base, out cold.

Sadhric had been about to leave, but he'd happened to glance down before leaving the booth and gotten interested despite himself in watching a Buffton fight firsthand. He'd sat back down and leaned back to watch. He'd seen Xavier hit the wookiee, had considered that over, and had found Vahn in the fight--and then, cued by crowd reaction, his attention had shot back to Xavier, and to the wookiee, who was now 'the late wookiee'....

Vahn was busy trying to regain attention, by using a small Force push to knock one of his opponents over. Meanwhile, a group of four humans slowly circled around Xavier, though they were waiting before engaging the Buffton. Maltez, meanwhile, was calmly walking around the exterior of the ray shielding system, and randomly stops by one of the pillars, leaning against it and watching the fight continue.

"Okay assholes...listen." Xavier spoke to the surrounding men. "I just got some not-so-good news..." One of them got a bit too close from behind, obviously not taking in the fact that the bounty hunter's helmet was able to view a full 360 degrees. Xavier answered with a swift backfist and the human melted to the floor. "So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way..." One from the side charged in and took a fast, spiked sidekick to the lower abdomen. Blood spurted from the fighter's mouth as he flew backwards and landed on top of the already dead wookiee. "Fine, I guess the hard way will have to do." Xavier cracked his knuckles at the remaining two. One of them...ran, and ran right into the ray shield in a shocking display of light and color that it got an applause and even a few Ooooh's and aaaaahh's from the spectators. The remaining fighter, although quivering, attempted to hold his own by sweeping Xavier to the ground. Xavier fell, and hard, but not before taking his little opponent with him. He gripped the little bastard's arm and twisted it around his back until the shoulder started to pop. The human screamed, and Xavier said, in an almost half-past-joking manner, "Say uncle!