A cesspool of the downtrodden, the Refugee Sector on Nar Shaddaa is home to both the misfortunate and criminals alike. Offering their protection for credits, the criminal organizations that control the sector tax the populace outrageous sums. Unable to provide these fees, refugees are forced to work under hazardous conditions producing glitterstim and adrenals for their overseers. Some of these refugees are addicted to the substances themselves—for which the cartels increase the price of their tithes in exchange for a share of the product.

Crammed with stalls and makeshift hovels, several of the sector’s inhabitants find refuge on the streets and in the alleyways. Those who managed to avoid the dangers of drug production can be found selling their limited and often defective goods to others. Behind these stalls, a selective stock of black market wares is hidden, reserved for mercenaries and thugs.

Littered with garbage, it is obvious that no maintenance droids have been programmed to maintain the sector. The surrounding towers have fallen into decay, bits of debris falling every so often into the middle of the street. The duracrete streets are covered in a film of filth and chemicals from the abandoned warehouses, making movement cumbersome when traveling through the most inhabited areas.

Patrols armed with blasters and vibroswords come through these areas regularly, making a show of force to advertise the merits of their ‘protection’ while extorting the occasional shopkeeper. Screams and shouts are a common enough sound, which is never in the refugees’ best interests to interfere in.

Kz’set never liked Nar Shadda even though the dimly lit streets and alleys did in someway remind him of home. It was the sort of place where no matter how many weapons and/or bodyguards you had, it was never enough. Even though he had his newly acquired B2 Super battle droid, four B1s. and that TuQ’uan fellow with him, he couldn’t help but be a bit nervous. That didn’t matter, they had a job to do.

Shortly after the Dread Lord had decided to help the Hurana deal with their pirate problem, the two Plaguians had been dispatched to locate an intelligence asset code named Gundark. They weren’t given a lot of details, just a locator frequency, the code name, and instructions to return the asset, or at a minimum the data they were carrying, to friendly forces. Despite having rather little to go on, the duo managed to track Gundark to the underbelly of Nar Shadda. While it wasn’t unusual for people who didn’t want to be found to end up here, whoever Gundark was came to the other side of the galaxy to avoid capture. Problem was, they didn’t do a particularly good job not being found as TuQ’uan and Kz’set had tracked Gundark’s locator to a hideout of a local gang. Word on the street is they were keeping Gundark until they could find out if there was a bounty on them or someone else willing to make it worth’s the gang’s while to release them.

“You know, we could just try and buy him back,” TuQ said as he and the Verpine walked up to the building the gang was holed up in.

“Possible, but not as much fun,” the insectoid replied. “Besides, I’ve been looking for an excuse to test them out.” Kz’set gestured to the quintet of droids following them.

The Kel Dor shook his head. “I don’t see how a bunch of street thugs would be a test for your droids. They seem even more capable, and creepier, than usual.”

The Verpine smiled. “Oh, the test is as much for me as them. I’ve never enhanced so many at once before.

TuQ’uan just sighed and continued on. As the group rounded the corner to get a full view of the gang hideout, the Kel Dor promptly halted the group. Kz’set was about to protest when he saw a muscular Klatoonian in the gang’s colors standing outside what looked to be the main entrance. A quick look around also spotted multiple camera pods on the exterior of the building.

“So, they are prepared. This will make things more fun,” Kz’set seemed genuinely gleeful at the sight of a challenge.

TuQ didn’t react. “Schematics of the building we found said there’s an entrance down one of these alleys. If we can get back there without these cameras spotting us, we could surprise them. We don’t have a good idea of their numbers. Between the two of us we should be able to handle any locks.”

“True,” Kz’set replied. “But there’s only one guard and he doesn’t look very smart.”

“Would be hard to take him out undetected with those cameras though. Now if we use some of this debris as cover we might be able to make it across.” TuQ’uan started to calculate a path through the chunks of debris to get across to the alley without being spotted. When he turned back to look at Kz’set, the Verpine was looking intently right at the nearest camera pod. With a snap of his chitinous fingers, there was a barely audible pop and then sparks started emanating from the pod before going dark a second later. The process repeated at all corners of the building.

The Verpine just smiled and looked at TuQ’uan. “There’s that problem solved.”

The Kel Dor looked momentarily surprised but then was all business. “I forgot you could do that.”

TuQ wrapped his arm around the shoulder of his Verpine companion.

“My turn.” A hint of amusement entered his tone as tipped his hat to sit off kilter on the top of his head and pointed at the entourage of droids. “Leave them back here and follow my lead.”

A quizzical look crossed Kz’set’s face as TuQ’uan dragged him forward, the two of them stumbling out of the shadows.

“I…I told you, is round here…s…some…where…” TuQ slurred his words, walking directly towards the lone thug with an unstable gait. “Maybe…maybe he tell us?”

“Turn around fellas,” the voice of the Klatooinian boomed, arms crossed across his chest. “I think you’re lost.”

“He think we lost,” TuQ laughed. “What do…you think?”

“I...think he is correct,” Kz’set mumbled through a nervous gulp with a prompt from the Kel Dor.

“Say friend, could…could you help us?” TuQ’uan swaggered forward, leaving Kz’set alone. “We are looking for friend, around here somewhere.” He put a hand on the guard’s shoulder, leaning on him for support and planting a foot behind the Klatooinian’s leg. His voice lowered, snapping out of his false intoxication. “Goes by the name ‘Gundark’.”

Surprise flashed across the gang member’s face, the world around him turned upside down. TuQ’uan’s leg jerked back, sweeping the thug off his feet while he pressed in hard with all of his weight. The two hit the ground hard with a dull thud, a tangle of struggling bodies. TuQ let out a mechanical sigh through his anti-ox mask as he rolled off his quarry revealing his stiletto protruding from the chest of the Klatooinian.

“Not as clean as I would have liked, but it got the job done.” TuQ’uan brushed himself off and straightened his hat. “Shall we?” he asked, spreading his arms out in a welcoming manner.

“I don’t appreciate being included in your theatricszzz,” the Verpine hissed. Wasting no time, he got to work on the door, the rudimentary lock was no match for his technical prowess and within moments it clicked open.

Hand hovering over the holster carrying his trusty blaster, TuQ’uan quietly slid through the now open doorway, Kz’set and his collection of droids quick to follow. The interior of the building was not much cleaner than out. Less trash littered the ground, but a thick layer of grime and dust coated every surface, absorbing what little illumination came from the dim light sources that still worked in the rundown building.

Reaching the end of a hallway, TuQ poked his head around the corner revealing a large, high ceilinged room dotted with shelving, a group of a half dozen gang members surrounded a single Duros tied to a chair in the center of the room, a gag stuffed into his mouth and a look of deep concern in his large, ruby red eyes.

“No one is paying for this sleemo’s release. I say we cut our losses and just waste him,” a Trandosian grumbled.

Lifting finger to his mouth, TuQ signaled for the group to proceed quietly and stay low and began to creep into the room. Kz’set replied with a shrug and stepped forward, droids in tow.

“What was that?” a Zabrak cried out and spun in the direction of the intruders, the clanking of the droids losing them the advantage of a surprise attack.

Frustration filled TuQ as he spun to see his companion come to a halt as the four B1 battle droids and his personal B2 unit swarmed past him, weapons raised and ready. A look of satisfaction on the Verpine’s face. In the blink of an eye the room erupted in a frenzy of blaster fire, the smell of burning ozone filling the air as the Kel Dor threw himself behind a crate for cover. Chaos quickly took hold of the room.

“Spare the Duroszzz,” Kz’set ordered the party of droids he held under his control. “I want him alive.”

“Roger, roger,” they bleated in unison.

TuQ calculated the path of the gang's fire which was concentrated on the droids, released his DL-44 from its place on his hip and popped up enough to see over the crate he had hid behind, sending a salvo of bolts aimed at the nearest enemy and officially joining the fray. His first victim to fall was the Zabrak, who let out a cry of pain as a blaster bolt burned a hole through his knee sending him crashing to the ground. A searing pain formed in TuQ’s left shoulder where another bolt streaked by, leaving a scorched path through his jacket and shirt and into the crimson flesh below.

Seizing upon the opportunity, the B1 battle droids concentrated their fire on the downed Zabrak, removing him from the fight. As the Zabrak’s last gasp of air escaped his lungs a quiet took hold of the room with blaster fire on both sides of the conflict dying down. The remaining gang members seemed to have taken cover behind shelves, faint shuffling and the muffled cries of the captured Duros tied to a now tipped over chair were the loudest sounds in the room.

Kz’set’s eyes darted around the room assessing the situation. On the one hand, one of the gang members was certainly dead and at least two more were injured. However on the other, TuQ had taken a good hit from a blaster and his droids were showing signs of battle damage having taken the brunt of the attack. The whir of worn and damaged servos wheezed as the B1 battle droids slowly inched forward, further into the room, carbon scoring painted parts of their metal exteriors black in spots.

The Force tugged at Kz’set, pulling his attention to a shelf off to the right, the warning came just in time as he leaped to the side to narrowly avoid a headshot from the Trandoshian. Simultaneously, TuQ’uan wasn’t so lucky, another thug rushed forward, barreling into the Plaguian with every ounce of strength he could muster crushing him up against the crate. His head whipped back as his spine bent in an unnatural manner, his breath escaping his lungs in a pained gasp.

“So you want to make it difficult.” Kz’set buzzed as he stared down the Trandoshan who had tried to shoot him. He never thought the gangsters would go down without a fight but at the same time any reasonable person in the criminals’ position should realize they were outmatched at this point. Still, ego and adrenaline sometimes had the ability to override reason. The Trandoshan leveling his blaster for another shot at the Verpine confirmed as much.

"Are you seriouszzz?” The insectoid chirped as the gangster squeezed the trigger. Kz’set extended a chitinous finger and the blaster bolt dispersed in a shower of sparks off the conjured Force barrier. Kz’set reached for the crimson lightsaber hilt at his belt and a split second later a bright tangerine blade snapped into being. As he inched towards the Trandoshan, Kz’set shot a look over to where TuQ was grappling with another Trandoshan gangster. The Kel Dor seemed to be having a tough go of it with the Trandoshan being clearly stronger, but for the moment TuQ was holding his own, barely.

Focusing back on his Trandoshan, Kz’set slowly advanced on the ganger, his bulbous obsidian eyes locked with the reptilian’s bright red ones. The Trandoshan didn’t appear unnerved and kept his blaster trained right on Kz’set. Each of the insectiods steps seemed to get louder as he moved forward, his chitinous feet clicking against the durasteel floor. The Trandoshan didn’t give ground and even fired off a couple more shots at the Verpine. One bolt went wide and Kz’set deftly knocked the other aside with his lightsaber.

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with, do you?” Kz’set buzzed loudly as the wrestling match across the room was making ever more noise.

“So you’re a kriffing sack of bantha crap with a glowy stick and some clankers, so what?” The Trandoshan’s words were followed by another blaster shot, which Kz’set deflected right back between the Trandoshan’s feet. A moment later, Kz’set’s B2 could be heard barreling towards the Trandoshan at full speed while Kz’set giggled.

“Now you’ve done it. He doesn’t like the C word.”

Kz’set stepped aside as the massive Mechu-deru enhanced super battle droid plowed right into the shocked gangster, knocking away his weapon and sending the Trandoshan back a meter into a nearby shelf. The droid then picked the gangster up by the neck and pinned him against the shelf. As the Trandoshan struggled the B2 gave a quick but knowing glance back to Kz’set who simply nodded in reply. A second later the report of the B2s wrist blasters sounded and the Trandoshan was released by the droid, now with a charred hole in his chest. At about the same time, TuQ, between punches from the other Trandoshan, managed to blurt out.

“A little, ow, help?”

Kz’set whipped around to see the battered Kel Dor under the less battered Trandoshan. With what amounted for a Verpine sigh, Kz’set took a few steps to get a clean line of sight and then sent a sizzling blast from his fingertips into the Trandoshan’s back. With a painful yelp, the reptilian released TuQ’uan, which was all that the Kel’dor needed to retrieve his vibrodagger and plant it directly in the Trandoshan’s chest. After Kz’set helped TuQ up from under the bleeding out Trandoshan, his attention turned to the B1s who had been surrounding the restrained Duros while keeping the wounded gangers away. None of them had even bothered to pick the Duros up. Kz’set shook his head and said to no one in particular.

“These ones still need work. Intelligence isn’t quite there yet.” The insectoid then looked at one of the B1s. “Pick him up please.” After looking confused for a moment, the B1 pulled the Duros and the chair up into a proper sitting position. While TuQ worked on cutting the prisoner free, Kz’set removed his gag.

“Gundark I presume?” Kz’set asked as he finished removing the gag.

The Duros nodded. “I’d ask who sent you but I’m not sure we have time for that.” Once his hands were freed he pointed to an active comlink on the floor near one of the wounded thugs.

“Kriff!” TuQ moaned as he finished freeing the Duros. With a look and flick of his finger, Kz’set fried the comlink but as he did he could hear the sounds of several repulsor engines approaching the hideout. Gundark shot out of his chair, walked over to a nearby crate and pulled out a data pad and a small blaster pistol. After placing a shot in each of the surviving thugs, he looked to Kz’set and TuQ’uan.

“I hope your exit strategy is as good as your entrance.”

TuQ stretched his back and groaned. I’ll certainly feel that in the morning, he thought to himself.

“Look, if you don’t like how we do things.” He shot Kz’set a look. “Too bad. The way I see it, we’re your only chance at getting out of here alive. Do you actually know how to use that thing?”

The Duros nodded his head rapidly.

“Good, we need to move, and quick. Kz?”

“The front door is out, too open, it would be a killing field. I say we head for that back door and out into the alleyszzz.”

“Works for me.” TuQ nodded and turned back to the Duros. “Now you do what the nice bug says and get moving,” he growled.

The party set off in the opposite direction of their arrival, Kz’set’s B2 droid in the lead flanked by two of the B1s, Kz’set himself close behind followed by TuQ’uan keeping a close eye on Gundark, capped off with the remaining two droids bringing up the rear. A door at the rear of the makeshift interrogation room led them to a hallway leading right. This hideout was deceptively large. Before they could move, the echoes of footfalls and shouting came from the hallway that had brought them here.

“Buy us some time,” Kz’set snapped at the two droids at the rear of the party. The droids paused, staring back at their master, a blank look on their steel faceplates not comprehending his order. He sighed. “Stay here and stop anyone from following us.”

“Roger, roger,” they responded in unison. The servos whined as they spun on the spot, weapons drawn, ready to sacrifice themselves to fulfill Kz’set’s orders.

That would slow down their pursuers, but for how long was anyone’s guess. They had no idea how many were following them, nor how many awaited once they found their exit. The footsteps of their pursuers grew louder and louder.

“Move!” TuQ whispered in a harsh tone.

The group rushed along as quickly as the mechanical legs of the lead droids would carry them down the hallway. The ring of blaster fire erupted behind them as they rounded a corner and found what they were looking for. A locked door sat in a wall that according to the provided schematics would lead out of this forsaken building and back into the alleys of Nar Shadaa. Without pausing, TuQ’uan whipped out his datapad and got to work on the lock, his fingers danced across the screen. Ding. The light on the door’s lock switched from red to green as it swung open.

The Kel Dor was the last one out into the night air, pausing for a moment he turned back, locked the door again and fired a single shot into the locking mechanism.

“Are you trying to give us away?” Kz’set snapped.

“Just trying not to be followed,” he hissed back.

“I heard something over here!” a voice shouted.

“Kriff, okay…that was a bad idea. Sue me.”

“I just might…”

Three more gang members rounded the corner ahead entering into the tight space of the alleyway, weapons drawn and ready for a fight. TuQ shoved the Duros hard into the wall of the alley.

“Stay down and don’t move. Cover me!” he shouted the latter at Kz’set and took off running towards the assailants.

Blaster fire flew back and forth buzzing over the Kel Dor’s head as he zig-zagged down the alley, head low. He could feel the heat off the bolts as they whizzed by barely missing him. The distance between himself and the group of thugs nearly closed, TuQ hopped up, planted his foot on the alley wall and launched himself towards the closest assailant. Fist connected with flesh with a dull crack as the two of them carried by TuQ’uan’s weight came crashing to the ground. TuQ landed in a crouch and spun towards his next target as the first’s head smashed hard against the ground leaving him unconscious.

What would have certainly looked impressive from TuQ’s point of view just looked messy and needlessly complicated to Kz’set. If he had just been patient, they would be done by now.

“Clean this up,” Kz’set ordered his droids. Turning away from the close quarters battle unfolding before him he waved his hand unleashing a blinding flash of light in the centre of the chaos.

The droids made quick work of the blinded gangsters while TuQ paced back and forth, hands covering his eyes.

“Damnit Kz, could you at least give a guy some warning first?”

“Quit your whining, you’ll be fine in a few hourszzz. Now.” Kz’set stretched out his hand, wrapping his long chitinous fingers around the cowering Duros’ forearm, dragging their target to his feet. “Let’s see if you were worth all of that trouble.”