Akoogari looked up into the hazy, smog filled sky of Ord Mantell. He brought his electrobinoculars up to his large, faceted Rodian eyes and scanned the sky, looking at the ships passing overhead. He sighed impatiently and put the electrobinoculars back into his pack. He glanced around from his concealed position within the garbage dump, just to make sure he wasn't followed.
As he waiting, growing more and more annoyed, one of the ships passing overhead slowed to a crawl and once the other ships seemed to thin out, the slowed ship fell from the sky at break-neck speed. It slowed to a stop, hovering a few meters from the ground, then gently set down in the green sludge. The landing gear sank a few feet into the toxic pool before it finally stopped. The ship powered down and the boarding ramp splashed down into the green liquid.
Akoogari peered out from his position high in the trash pile at the man and droid disembarking. He got up from his position and made his way down to the freighter.
As he approached the ship, and when he seen the human he said, "Hey Nerf, you better not have messed up my droid," as he nodded at LE-8, "He didn't try to sell off any of your parts did he?"
LE-8 responded, "Negative sir, he in fact did not try to steal my parts."
Marric Horng responded, "Hey Akoo, sorry I'm late but this isn't a shipment to be careless with."
"Yeah, yeah. Just get it unloaded, we have a schedule to keep, don't want to keep Jabba waiting," Akoogari said.
As LE-8 and Marric were unloading the cargo the faint rumbling of a garbage train was heard, and it was growing louder. Marric looked at Akoogari and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry, it's part of the plan," he said as he watched the train, then looked over at Marric and grined, "part of the plan."
They managed to get all of the cargo out and stacked in a pile next to him. Akoogari opened one of the containers and peered in. He smiled in delight a he looked at the thousands of credits worth of glitterstim within reach of his long Rodian fingers. He handed the Marric the 10,000 credits that he was supposed to pay him.
"There is your credits, now get going," Akoogari said as the train screeched to a halt a 100 meters or so behind him.
He slipped one of the strings of glitterstim into his pocket as Marric was getting back into his ship. His freighter powered up and blasted off.
"Grab the crates and get em onto that train," Akoogari yelled over the hydraulic brakes, "It will take us to the ship and we'll be set!"
They both grabbed two crates and turned towards the train.
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As they approached the stopped train, and Ithorian jumped down from the engine and came trotting up on their left.
"Where's a good spot?" Akoogari asked.
The Ithorian responded in his native tongue, sounding very nervous. He then pointed at a car pile with garbage.
Akoogari looks back behind him at the car, scanned the trash pile, nodded, then said, "Alright, looks like some good cover. How long until you get us to our ship?"
The Ithorian rubbed his hands together nervously and spoke again.
"I don't care how many stops you make as long as we get there on time and don't run into any trouble," Akoogari said cockily, "Now get back up in that engine and get this boat moving, we have been waiting long enough."
The Ithorian let out a slue of gibberish sounding words very quickly.
"Calm down, calm down. It's fine, your boss won't find out and you will get enough credits to buy a thousand jawa beers. Just get up there and get this tug moving," Akoogari said a bit annoyed.
LE-8 got onto the car and Akoogari handed him the crates on at a time. They hid them under some trash on the edge of the car.
"Alright, you know the plan," he said to LE-8.
LE-8 gave an emotionless nod and laid down on the trash over the glitterstim. Akoogari reached around him and flicked his power switch off.
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Akoogari lay crouched in an uncomfortable position in the trash, where he could keep an eye on LE-8. He had been in this position now for a few hours. The Ithorian continued on starting and stopping, picking up trash and unloading it. Akoogari was beginning to feel disgruntled when the train came to another stop. The Ithorian came slowly down next to the train, glancing around whispering.
"I'm right here, what is it? Finally there?" He said as he got up from his position and towards LE-8.
He turned LE-8 back on and told him to get the crates off of the train. He jumped down into the sludge and handed the Ithorian 2,000 credits.
"Alright, you got your credits, now you may want to get going before anyone notices." Akoogari said as he noticed the Ithorian looking back over Akoogari's shoulder.
Akoogari squinted his eyes at him and the Ithorian nervously jumped and stared shaking into Akoogari's face. Akoogari slowly turned around. He noticed LE-8 already had the crates off of the train and waiting, but then he saw the others. The Ithorian took a quick step back to get himself out of the way of blaster fire. Akoogari looked over his shoulder at the yammering Ithorian.
"Sithspit, you treacherous worm. You'll pay," Akoogari said angrily.
One of the thugs stepped forward with a blaster drawn.
The Dug cackled, "Oh no, Sleemo. Looka like you gonna dead, eh? What in crates me asks." as he motioned for the Ithorian to grab the crates and bring them over to him.
"Sorry, doesn't work that way," Akoogari say belligerently as he drew his pistol from it's holster on his right hip and whipped it back into the Ithorian's face.
The Ithorian fell into the sludge with a splash. He spun around and aimed the blaster down at its head and fired three quick shots.
"Umm, sir, watch out," LE-8 said calmly as he grabbed the Zabrak that was rushing forward's arm.
The Zabrak was holding a vibroblade, LE-8 brought he other hand up to his throat and clenched down, snapping his neck and then threw the body down. He then unslung his DH17 blaster and aimed at the Dug. He fired a few rapid shots but missed him. Akoogari turned back around and rolled forward, stopping on one knee. The third thug, a Sullustan, began firing at Akoogari.
He rolled to his right out of the way and screamed at LE-8, "GRAB TWO OF THE CRATES AND MAKE A RUN FOR THE SHIP!"
Akoogari got up, keeping his head down and grabbed two of the crates. LE-8 was already on his way to the ship with the crates. He then turned towards the ship, firing wildly as he ran for the open ramp. He dove forward into the ship and it quickly began to lift off, the ramp then shut quickly behind him.
Akoogari rolled over onto his back breathing heavily. After a few moments to recover from his brisk run, he stood up and glanced around for the crates of glitterstim he had thrown into the ship.
He picked them up and yelled, "LE-8, WHERE DID YOU PUT YOUR CRATES!" He then noticed out of the corner of his eye two neatly stacked crates. "Never mind."
He grabbed the other two crates and slowly walked to the barrack section of the ship. He knelt down and removed a small floor panel, revealing a large dark pit with a metal grate bottom. He stuck his head down into the compartment and began to move things around. He grabbed one of the crates and set it down into the nook. As he was reaching for another, the ship jolted suddenly. He jumped up and ran to the cockpit.
"What are you doing to my shi..." He exclaimed then quieted down as he seen the Z-95 Headhunters."
"Sir, the markings, apparently those thugs work for Lady Valarian," LE-8 said calm as usual.
"Alright, I guess I won't be getting a room in the Imperial Palace Casino and Hotel..." he said as he turned to the gunner seat next to LE-8s pilot seat, "Well, get us to a hyperspace jump point and get us back to Tatooine in one piece."
He flicked a few switches on the consol, activating the modified AA-9 Coruscant freighters weapon systems. The lights in the old ship dimmed as the power was sapped by the weapons.
Akoogari looked up at the fading lights and said, "I thought you fixed that."
Suddenly the ship rocked again and one of the Z-95 screamed by the front of the cockpit. Akoogari opened fire with the forward facing blasters, trailing the Z-95 by just a few meters, finally clipping the right engine. Akoogari's already large eyes widened a bit when he noticed the engines were to small to support hyperdrive. He moaned realizing there has to be a larger ship to carry the fighters.
"Get us out of here, now!" he said looking over at LE-8.
He glanced down at the sensor HUD. He switched to the turrets hidden inside the top of the ship.
The blaster popped out of the top of the ship and began to turn based on Akoogari's control movements in the cockpit. It zeroed in on a strafing Z-95 and began to fire rapidly. The hundreds of rapid-fire blaster bolts whipped towards the Headhunter at a blinding speed, hitting it on the cockpit then moving back to the end of the ship hitting the engines. The Z-95 exploded in a bright purple flame.
Akoogari grinned as he realized the Z-95s were so old and outdated that even his outdated freighter was stronger than they were, he said to LE-8, "They are to old to even have shields installed. Lady Valarian grows poor."
He chuckled as he watched the remaining Z-95 charge straight at the front of the ship. Blaster bolts rained down upon the top of the ship as it pulled up and flew over.
"Sir, we have reached the jump-point," LE-8 said as he hit the controls.
The ship jumped into hyperspace.
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As the ship decelerated out of lightspeed, they could see the sandy world of Tatooine.
"Alright, put us down behind the palace," Akoogari said as he chuckled, "I'm glad we didn't see the ship transporting those fighters."
The ship slowly descended through the cloudless sky of Tatooine and touched down with a jolt. Akoogari and LE-8 grabbed the crates and exited the ship. They began walking around the palace to get to the entrance. Blaster fire began to rain down on their AA-9, resulting in a large explosion throwing them both forward.
Akoogari lifted his sand-covered face up from the sand and turned his head around to see his ship's flaming wreakage. But as he was about to mourn his ship's death. He noticed the landed ship with five thugs charging up. He handed LE-8 the two crates he had and they both began to run to the entrance. Akoogari drew his blaster and began firing backwards wildly.
"GET THOSE TO JABBA, I'LL FEND OF THESE FELLAS!" he screamed over the blaster fire.
They both came running up to the entrance and the annoying eye-droid popped out of the door.
"I don't have time for you, open the door and send out some Gamorreans, we have some visitors from Lady Valarian," he said to the droid.
The door slowly began to open and three Gamorreans rushed out with their battle axes at the ready. Akoogari turned and shot at one of the thugs, hitting him in the groin and dropping him to the ground. He then ducked inside as the Gamorreans charged the thugs. He made his way up the stairs and into the throne room. There LE-8 was standing before Jabba with the crates stacked in front of him. Akoogari walked up and stood next to LE-8.
Jabba began to talk in his long, bellowing Huttese.
The metallic orange 3PO unit, G-5PO's predecessor, began to speak, "The Mighty Jabba greets you and is greatly disappointed in you bringing those foul Valarians back to the palace. But he sees you have his glitterstim, so he will dock your pay by 2,000 credits. You will only receive 8,000 credits for your mission. Once again, but, the Illustrious Jabba will award you 5,000 credits for destroying lady Valarian's Z-95 Headhunter. For that, he applauds you and hopes your ship being destroyed will not keep you from running to many future jobs."
Akoogari nodded as a Weequay came forward, handed him his 13,000 credits and picked up the crates of glitterstim.
"The magnificent Jabba says that you should relax and spend some time here in the palace. Have a drink and enjoy the entertainment," the orange 3PO said.
"Thank you very much Jabba," he said as he glanced at Oola dancing, "I'd love to stay for a bit."