Reyes walks over to the table and sits down. "So, who's your friend?"

Zug sits next to Wayde at the bar, muttering, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

---

At the booth, the Nikto introduces himself and his friend in a cultured voice. "Greetings. I am Ash Pomba - I speak for Pinky. This is my protection, Xando." Xando grunts, glaring at Wayde and Mak across the room.

Ash continues. "Xando informs me that the retired Champion travels with you. He'd like his autograph if it's not too much trouble. As for myself, I trust you have brought something for me?"

Wayde slams back his whiskey shot then moves on to the beer.

"I can't say I'm thrilled with our current situation, but it still beats the alternative of having bounties on our heads. I think we picked the wrong profession...all the real money is in collecting debt."

Jileeza glides into the bar like oil on water. Nabbing a fancy, fruity drink from the bartender, she begins to make the rounds, chatting amiably with various patrons. As she walks and talks, she keeps a subtle eye on the table where Reyes has joined the two strangers.

If it comes to a fight, 'Za decides, her first blaster round is going through the Weequay's head.

In return to Xando's glare, Mak gives him an almost unoticed tilt of the head and a look of recognition, a gesture universally known among hired muscle as "I won't pull any shit, you won't pull any shit, and once the deal is done we might even buy each other a beer."

The so called former boxing legend sits next to Reyes and takes a chug out of his beer bottle every once in a while.

Arnae nods. "We indeed have something for you. Did you bring some sort of sample verification device? I always wondered what they looked like.

Erit tries to remember enough about Niktos to decide whether he should try mentally reaching out, but instead of risking a blunder with a force-sensitive negotiator, he janks his powers down to passively listening. Safer this way, and besides, the water here is quite good.

"Can I have your autograph?" Xando asks Mak in Huttese.

---

Ash moves laconically, producing a scanning device about the size of a TV remote. "This device should verify your sample to my satisfaction - " he says, keying the scanner, which lights up a few times. " - and it does. Gentlemen and ladies, if you have the amount that you say you do any other purveyor would likely try to give you 15 to 20,000 credits for it. Pinky is a generous being, and has allowed me to offer you 30,000 credits. Hopefully that will suffice?"

Mak's facial hair ripples through surprise, embarrassment, and end up as somewhat pleased.

"Got something I can use?" he accompanies a writing motion in the air.

Ash Pomba gives Xando an amused glare as the Weequay searches his belt, then slides a stylus and a datapad over to Mak.

"30,000 credits is fine by me," Reyes says. "Let's do the transfer at..." Reyes pulls out his datapad and has it randomly select some barren location on the planet. "34 degrees 12 minutes east and 46 degrees 32 minutes north. Any problems with that?"

"Here you go," Mak hands back the datapad with a smile.

"Knock 'em cold, Xando.
Mak Ruk'vys "

Ash checks his datapad as Xando takes back his autograph with a smile - well, as smiling as you can get for a Weequay thug.

Ash replies, "I don't see why not. Shall we say, in an hour's time? I'll have to collect payment and ready my transport."

With that, he and Xando get up to leave.

---

Wayde notices Zug, who's leaning back against the bar watching the entrances just as he is, has just frozen stiff with fear. His round eyes are fixed on three Rodians who just walked into the cantina wearing long tan desert ponchos. Wayde's suspicion is confirmed by Zug's squeezing of his arm and his harsh whisper: "They're after us, the guys in ponchos," he says as he whips around in his seat to put his back to them. Then, more to himself than to Wayde: "Don't let 'em see me, don't let 'em see me..."

Erit feels Zug's icy-cold fear for a moment as well and turns to see the three Rodians walk in.

Quote:

Quote: from admiralducksauce on 12:16 pm on Dec. 6, 2003

Wayde notices Zug, who's leaning back against the bar watching the entrances just as he is, has just frozen stiff with fear. His round eyes are fixed on three Rodians who just walked into the cantina wearing long tan desert ponchos. Wayde's suspicion is confirmed by Zug's squeezing of his arm and his harsh whisper: "They're after us, the guys in ponchos," he says as he whips around in his seat to put his back to them. Then, more to himself than to Wayde: "Don't let 'em see me, don't let 'em see me..."

"Ok, but don't ever say you didn't ask for it."

Wayde sucker-punches Zug in the kidneys (or the Rodian equivalent thereof), hopefully putting him temporarily down.

Wayde slams a fist into Zug's lower back, then bounces his face off the bar to put him out. Zug's surprised during the split-second before slipping into unconsciousness.

Everyone in the cantina turns to see what happened. Wayde doesn't - he knows what happened, so as the rest of the bar looks at what he did to poor Zug, Wayde sees the three Rodians produce blaster rifles from under their ponchos.

"Oota nal chingwee Stryker!" (Stryker, where's your boss?) shouts the lead Rodian.

"No blasters! No blasters!" the bartender exclaims over the increasingly agitated bargoers.

Mak draws a blaster and a friend to go along with him, taking careful aim at a Rodian thug with one one of them.

It's show time.

"Yeah, he's right over there..." Wayde says, motioning away from Arnae's table.

Wayde yanks Zug up by his underarm, drawing his blaster pistol and firing with his other hand. The first Rodian crumples backwards into the adobe wall, his poncho carbonizing along with his chest. Wayde pops two more shots off, missing the other two Rodians as they duck for cover. One of the gunmen drops prone and blasts Wayde in his gun arm - fire sizzles up from his bicep as Wayde and Zug slump against the bar. The other Rodian squeezes a shot off as he ducks underneath a nearby table, sending a group of sabaac players to the floor. Cards and credit chits scatter across the cantina. The Rodian's shot misses Wayde. Zug, on the other hand, stiffens as the blast bolt hits him high on the chest. Wayde and Zug slide down the bar and into a semi-sitting position on the cantina floor. Wayde's blaster drops from his fingers as he grasps his right arm in pain - it's a nasty feeling wound, but not life-threatening.

It's at this time that Mak finally pushes enough bargoers out of his way to get a clean shot or two or four off at the Rodians. Shoving a Twi'lek waitress to the ground, Mak sidesteps an overturned table and fires both blasters at the Rodians. The prone Rodian takes it in the face and ribs, convulsing and rolling over twice, dispersing blaster smoke in a small cloud around him. Mak misses the last Rodian hitman as his target ducks behind the sabaac table.

Everything just kind of freezes for a second - the Rodian crouched down behind his table, Mak standing with a smoking blaster in each hand - then the crowd in the Cantina goes for the door. And the windows, and the kitchen, and the bar - anything that'll get them out of the way of a stray blaster bolt. Xando draws a blaster pistol and stands beside Mak, keeping Ash Pomba behind him with a ham-hock of a hand.

As the people near the exit begin to rush out of the cantina, Jileeza simply flows along with them until she's next to the Rodian, who's crouched down and looking the other way. She steps close to the remaining Rodian from the side, her blaster already in her hand. "Hello, handsome," she says in her usual sultry voice as she pulls the trigger.

From Mak and Wayde's perspective, they see Jileeza melt out of the crowd next to the Rodian's table. She raises her hand, there's a flash obscured by the top of the table, and a dead Rodian hitman falls out from behind the overturned table.

"Smooth," Mak chuckles at Jileeza's direction, then turns to Xando and his employer. "Catch you guys later. Right now, we need to split."

He turns again to face the previously occupied booth's direction. "Reyes! Now is a good time to get the hell out of here! Move out!"

Reyes is fumbling with his equipment. "I'm coming, I'm coming!" he yells.