Saga The Long Road Back - Part 1- OC's

This is the follow up for 'A Destiny Changed'. I hope you enjoy!

The Long Road Back



Altis Sooso passed through the hangar doors into the dimly lit bay and surveyed the scene before him. Damaged and destroyed cargo containers had work crews hastily cleaning their contents as if they contained hazardous materials. Four dead bodies of different species, some with limbs severed, littered the deck. Black scorch marks from a firefight were evident about the hangar walls and along the loading ramp of the docked freighter. Despite the death in the hangar the air had a clean smell to it. Altis breathed it in deeply as he started making his mental notes.

He knelt down to examine the body nearest him; a brown skinned Rodian male lying prone. Altis gently rolled the Rodian over to reveal blackened evidence of a blaster bolt to the chest. Light green ooze drizzled from the wound as Altis let the body go. He scanned the other bodies as he stood up, noting their position from one another. Each body was barely four meters apart from each other and based on how they had fallen Sooso formed an opinion that they had surrounded what these victims thought to be prey, a mistake that had cost them their lives. Whoever had done this did so at close range.

Altis walked over to where a severed limb lay not too far from its human owner. He examined the arm which still held, rather firmly, the blaster of the deceased. The limb showed no signs of being torn, the flesh was smooth and the wound cauterized. Altis knew of only one weapon that could do such damage with bloodless efficiency, but it was not possible. The last time he had seen a wound of this sort he was literally a green rookie back on Coruscant. Altis made his way up the loading ramp and into the empty cargo hold when a young but familiar voice called out.

?So what ya make of this old timer?? a young voice boomed.
?Not sure yet, but you NSDF types don?t make it easy on me by traipsing through all my evidence.?

Sooso despised the Nar Shaddaa Defense Force for being a complete shill of a law enforcement agency. The only law they were here to enforce was that which benefited the Hutts and the Hutts alone. He often referred to the NSDF as the ?No shame defense force? for being so obviously bought and paid for. He laughed when they called him in for any assignment requiring real investigative work and he sorely missed the time he was in respectable law enforcement.

?Did anyone run the ID on the freighter?? Altis asked aloud to no one in particular.

The same young voice replied. ?Yes. HFT111325. It was due to leave for Kessel within the hour.?
?So that?s why the NSDF has such an interest in this.? he thought as he glanced back toward the cleaning crews near the cargo containers.

Altis knew nothing legitimate ever came out of Kessel. The HFT designation marked the vessel as a Huttese Freightway Transport, this one belonging to Moorga the Hutts legal shipping franchise. The Hutts didn?t waste time with naming their freighters; they simply assigned them a serial number. Altis figured the Hutts had been hit by hard times if they had to resort to using their own freighters for smuggling which would place them in an uncomfortable situation.

When the spice trade was slow many smugglers would find more lucrative transporting needs and lease out their services, placing a strain on the Hutts distribution which they were not accustomed to. Shipping their own spice not only cut into their profits but also put them at a legal risk. The Empire did not reach out this far?yet. Still garrisons and outer rim outposts were increasing as the Empire sought to expand. The Hutts still managed to do business into the mid rim territories with little to no Imperial interference while the Black Sun organization maintained a stranglehold on all the core worlds. The Hutts could ill afford the Imperial blockade of Nal Hutta that would surely come if one of their legal freighters were ever boarded. The Hutts needed the distance from these illicit activities that smugglers provided.

Th

 

Altis entered his cramped yet neatly organized office. With a heavy thud he plunked down into the chair behind his desk. He leaned as far back as the wall would allow as he kicked his tired feet up onto the corner section of his desk. He removed his datacard reader and the datacards given to him by the junior NSDF officer. He switched the device on and continued scanning through the first card.

The data contained on the card was a non listed case for the NSDF. It detailed the death of a Devaronian gang leader that led a small pack of deathstick pushers south of the E district. The E district was short for the entertainment district and it glowed of bright neon beacons. Orange, red, blue, green, violet?an artist?s palette of dreams covered with audacious signage and advertising along the casinos and cantinas. The section was so brightly lit it could be seen from orbit.

Any vice, legal or not, could be found on Nar Shaddaa. If one had the credits to burn, odds are one could find what they sought. Loose laws and being under control of the opportunistic Hutts made Nar Shadda a haven for borderline illicit activities as well as outright illegal ones. This drew every sort of shady figure and fringe type to the place commonly known as the ?smugglers moon?.

The Devaronian, Dez Bishwa, and two of his associates had been found in an alleyway the victims of foul play. There were no holos of the crime, or the bodies, only a description of the wounds found and a brief theory of what the victims last few moments of life may have been like. Altis noted the fact that broken deathstick tubes were strewn about the alley and each victim had portions of the sticky substance either on their skin or clothing.

Altis pondered that for a moment as he inserted the next card and was not surprised to see a similar circumstance. Beings of questionable ethics and backgrounds found dead. Drugs appeared to be the only common link to the murders. The only question in Altis? mind?was this the handy work of a serial killer, or a vigilante? One thing was apparent; he would need to hit the streets and alleys. He needed more facts.

Altis also decided to stop by and see what passed for the medical examiner on this moon. The cauterization of the wounds disturbed him, perhaps there was another explanation for them. The only other reason he could attribute them to sent chills down his spine and he hoped he was wrong.

+++++

Iant knelt in the relative comfort of the cabin aboard his ship. He was calm and at peace as he meditated on his actions. He felt no remorse for what he had done, years of the violence he had been witness to numbed him but occasionally doubt would surface. At times, over the last few weeks, he would wonder whether he should have stayed in the life he was accustomed to. He thought back to that day not long ago on Tatooine that changed his destiny. He had felt the will of the Force clearly that day, even through the haze of his drunken high. Still there were days when he cursed that damn Kenobi for putting him back on the path of the light, of the Jedi.

He had no illusions. Iant knew the order; the Jedi as he knew them would possibly never exist again, at least in his lifetime. He had to keep his activities low key. He couldn?t risk being identified as a Jedi for fear of what the Empire might do to him. He had heard of bounties being offered on anyone showing Jedi potential. Rumors ran rampant at what happened to those unfortunate to have been turned over. Iant vowed to never let that happen.

He maintained his identity as a representative of the Hutts, better to die in the outer rim than at the hands of Imperial agents. Plus this helped maintain his information network and kept him in on all the major trafficking deals. He would always know the who, the when, and the where of any major spice shipments.

Iant started his war on spice at the lowest level, the streets. He went after the dealers and pushers that sold the product to anyone with credits. All Iant cared about was destroying the narcotics, not taking live