A Job That Pays Well

[Garlen Durakkis]

Prologue: A New Life

Aaron stared at his empty glass. He sat at the cantina, in the Coruscant Undergound to be exact. How many shots had he had now? He didn't know. Is this really what his life had come to? In the Coruscant Underground, poor, living in the slums, barely being able to pay his rent! Not to mention being drunk half the time. He was only 22 years old for God's sake! "Bartender, my glass is empty!" he yelled.

As the bartender filled his glass they heard gunfire from outside. The whole cantina sat still, quiet for a moment, and then everything just returned to normal. Aaron slurped down his whole glass again and started to head outside. When he had exited the cantina, four Rodians stood over two older looking human males. Aaron knew crime happened all the time down here in the Underlevels of Coruscant but he had a feeling he ought to do something about this one." Hey, what do you think you are doing!" He yelled.


The Rodians turned around and just stared at him, with a curious look on their face. Clearly they couldn't speak Galactic Basic, and whatever they said after words he hadn't understood for he couldn't speak Rodian. So he returned the favor and stared at them with the puzzling look on his face. Suddenly they pulled their blasters on him. Just then one of the men pulled his blaster out and fired at one of the Rodians. The Rodian fell down instantly and Aaron noticed the huge gaping hole in the creature's head. Things were like a blur for the next few minutes. Aaron jumped in and got in a fist fight with one of the Rodians. A few stray blaster shot's danced across the ground and sounds of pain howled from the Rodians and then it was over. " Thanks for helping us," said one of the men.


"You got guts kid, listen we are from the Ironfist family. Just throwing this by but you should consider joining we could use someone like you, and by the looks of ya, you could use someone like us." replied the other man.

Aaron looked down at his self, at his rags that he called clothes. He knew they were criminals, but by the looks of their clothing they looked well paid. Aaron seriously considered it, he figured nothing could be much worse than the way he was living now. "Name's Alen Long by the the way," said one of the men smiling and holding out his hand.

Aaron shook Alen's hand. "Aaron Hayes," Aaron replied.

"Cale Tilman, here go ahead and hop in the speeder, we're going back up to the mansion," said the other man.

And so Aaron followed. As they got in the speeder, Aaron saw how luxurious this speeder really was. Alen drove the speeder up and up and way out of the the Underlevels. As they got closer to the top things seemed so much more brighter and lively.
That's when he saw the mansion. He stared in awe to see the giant building in front of his eyes. The whole thing was mounted off of a skyscraper! When they parked Aaron shambled out of the speeder. He was still quite drunk. They all walked up to the mansion. A security probe came from what seemed a hole at the top of the mansion. It scanned each of us with a beam. "Unknown guest."the machine said flatly.

"He's with us," said Alen while putting a deathstick in his mouth.

The doors opened to reveal a very large room with fine furniture and intricate designs all over the walls and floors. They walked through several rooms filled with people talking and laughing. After walking through what seemed miles of a house, they reached a small room. A man sat in a chair looking straight at them. "You're back, it's about time! Who the hell is this?" asked the man.

"This kid right here probably saved our lives, four Rodian freaks came out of nowhere and started pounding on us, both of us dropped our blasters. Luckily, he came along and distracted them long enough to give us a chance to reach our blasters. He killed one of them Rodians with his bare fists!" said Cale.

Aaron hadn't even realized he actually killed one of the Rodians. Was he really punching that hard? "So you wantin' him to join or something? So he beat down a Rodian and distracted a few others?! What else can you do kid?" asked the man in an annoyed tone.

Aaron didn't even know what to say. But what he did reply wasn't very smart, or helpful to his situation. "And who do you think you are!?" Aaron shouted angrily.

Alen shot him a dirty look and said,"Delmon Ironfist, leader of the Ironfist family."

Aaron felt like an idiot and just as he was opening his mouth to apologize, he puked on Mr. Ironfist.

(This is all also on the SWTOR forums, Fan fiction section. Written by me! )

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 1: Proving Worth
2 BTC

Aaron's eyes flew open. He looked up only to see Cale setting over him. "Well if it ain't sleeping beauty." Cale said laughing.

"What happened?" Aaron asked.

"Let's just say, you aren't earning many points with Mr. Ironfist so far. First you yell right in his face and then you go puking all over him." Cale barely managed to say still laughing.

Aaron had a headache. He felt like going back too sleep. "On the bright side, Mr. Ironfist has a job for you, to say... prove your worth. You see there's this ex-republic commando who has a shipment of guns for us. He's been doing some suspicious activity and the law enforcement is on his tail. We just need you to simply head over to his private warehouse, get the guns and head back. You'll also need to meet up with a sullustan, Hiram Ran-shock on the way. Easy enough?" Cale asked.

"Sounds like it to me," Aaron replied.
------
" You Hiram Ran-shock? Aaron asked the Sullustan.

"Yes and you are Aaron Hayes?" replied Hiram.

"Yes, you tell me where to go," said Aaron.

When they arrived at the warehouse they saw a large group of Coruscant law enforcement officers standing outside. Aaron decided park about a block away. They both got out of the speeder and looked at the scene from a distance. In the distance they saw a bunch of men being escorted out in cuffs. And then a larger, buffer man was escorted out, he broke out of his chains and tried to take down the captors. Just then two officers came in with with heavy stun blasters and shot repeatedly until the man was finally brought down."This is not good," said Hiram. "That's Aramis Floto, the Republic commando. They busted the warehouse. They're taking out the shipments!" yelled Harim as the officers took out the crates containing the guns.

"Well let's go after them! We can't just let them get away!" yelled Aaron.

"Are you crazy? First of all they are most likely taking all the workers and Floto in the Coruscant prison. Then they'll lock away all the weapons! And here's the part I don't think you get, there's probably about 30+ officers down there. Not to mention all the others on duty right now that they can easily call for backup. It'd be hard for a Jedi to be able to take down all of them!" replied Harim.

"Listen here, I'm not failing this! This is probably my only chance to impress Mr. Ironfist because we're not on very good terms right now! I'm figuring out a way whether you like it or not!" Aaron said angrily to Hiram.


Aaron decided to wing it. Who needs plans? Just then the speeder with the criminals in its started to drive their way. Aaron stood against the wall of the building holding his blaster pistol up ready to fire at the driver. Right as the speeder came into view Aaron shot. Headshot driver was dead. "Hiram, jump for it into the speeder!" Aaron shouted.

Aaron jumped right into the drivers seat and Hiram right into the back. Aaron started speeding up. "Okay, Hiram start taking the cuffs off the prisoners. In a second we're are gonna turn around and get those weapons!" Aaron yelled to Hiram while trying to focus on not hitting a building.

"And how do you expect to do that!? We are the only ones with weapons!!" Hiram said worriedly.

Aaron picked up two blaster pistols over to Hiram."Hand these back to Aramis and somebody else who looks like they can shoot." Aaron said to Hiram as he was taking the cuffs off the last captured worker.

Aaron did a very sharp turn almost crashing into two other speeders. "Here we go!" Aaron yelled excitedly as they saw two police speeders in front of them."Now!" he yelled.

Hiram, Aramis, and the other worker all shot at once killing everyone in the speeder. Then two more workers jumped into the other speeder and drove straight into the next causing an explosion on collision. Both workers plunged to their deaths above the Coruscant skyline. "Forget them, we still gotta secure the weapons!" Aaron yelled to everyone else.

More sirens started to go off in the distance, clearly it was backup on the way. "Hurry up get those crates and get to the warehouse in the underlevels!" Hiram yelled.

Up ahead the saw the warehouse docking platform again. As they closed in Hiram and Aramis started firing wildly at the officers. Not many were left. Most of the rest of the workers jumped down took the rest of the speeders filled with the crates and took off. "We gotta lose this heat!" Hiram yelled.

"Oh, that's no problem!" Aaron yelled as loud as he could! It was exhilarating!

Aaron drove as fast as the speeder could go dodging every little obstacle in his way. They were in the underlevels in minutes. The other speeders arrived a few seconds later. They all parked at the underground storage house." I'm assuming you have the delivery," said a twi'lek guarding outside the storage.

"Yes, we do. Ran into a lot more trouble than we thought we would." said Aaron with a grin on his face.

"I can see," the twi'lek said, expressionless.

After unloading the packages in the storage, Aaron changed into some new clothes and got in a tricked out speeder stored in the storage. "That should throw them off a little. You did good today, for a new guy at least." Hiram said.

Aaron laughed and went ahead and started heading back to the mansion. When he got back everybody had already knew what he had done, most of everyone was impressed on how he had pulled it off, including Mr. Ironfist.

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 2: Burning Old Connections
2 BTC

The sound of laughter and the stench of deathsticks drifted around the room. Aaron had won every single game of pazaak tonight. He never knew he was so good at it, nor had he played pazaak before this night! It had been about a month since his first job for the Ironfist family and he'd been loving every minute of it! All within a month he'd managed to get Mr. Ironfist to trust him in the same room as him, extorted at least over 10 businesses now all paying the Ironfist family every week, and had at least managed to bribe a few officials to stay off of the Ironfist family's tail. Aaron was quite impressed with himself. He looked down back at the table and all the cards lain out and realized he'd won again! He felt done for the night however and went back to his room in the mansion Mr. Ironfist was providing for him. Just as he lay down someone knocked at the door. He opened it to see Alen standing in front of him. "Get your clothes back on, we got some business to get to." said Alen.

Aaron sat in the passenger seat of the speeder as the night breeze of Coruscant blowed in his face."So what exactly are we doing?" Aaron asked groggily.

"Remember that ex-commando you helped a month ago? Well he's been working with these punks that cause themselves, the Centaurus. He's been feeding information about us and been supplying them with more guns. Just recently some of their guys shot up a few of our guys and took some of our businesses. And who told Aramis all this information about us? Had to be that little prick Hiram." Alen said, sounding annoyed.

"So we just going to take care of them?" Aaron asked.

"Pretty much, but one more thing, this Jedi has been helping Aramis get off his feet and get recognized as a hero and trying to get him to stop with all the criminal activities. Yeah I know he's a Jedi, but he ain't much so if we happen to run into him things can't be too bad." Alen said.

Simple enough, it seemed. Alen said they were heading over to Hiram's place first, rough him up a little. Aaron still couldn't believe Hiram had been helping out other gangs in exchange for what? More credits Aaron assumed. They pulled up next to Hiram's apartment and got out of the speeder. They approached his door and rung the doorbell. Hiram opened it up and looked at us in horror. "Why the hell did you do it?!" Alen yelled as he grabbed Hiram by his shirt.

" I did not mean to bring harm!" cried the sullustan in fear.

Alen hit him upside the head with his blaster. "What did you tell him, why did you do it? I want answers!" Alen yelled.

Then apparently the person living next door walked in. "What's going on in here?" asked the man.

"Shoot him." Alen said to Aaron.

Aaron raised his blaster and shot the man right between the eyes. He picked up the body and hid it further inside the room and then shut the door.

"Listen, Aramis, he was getting high offers from these guys, Centaurus, for guns and info on the Ironfist family for some reason. So of course he set them up with more guns, but he came to me for info and... he offered a big stash of credits for the info so I told him all about your businesses, warehouses, operations, everything! I'm sorry." Hiram replied franticly.

"Sorry ain't enough," Alen said as he shot the sullustan. "Let's go kid."

They both got in the speeder and started heading to one of Aramis's most common hangout places, a small cantina in the underlevels of Coruscant. "I don't get it, what do these Centaurus punks want with us anyways? And what kind of name is Centaurus?" said Alen as he was driving.

They arrived at the cantina in a few minutes and sure enough, Floto was there. They both walked in and snuck right up behind Aramis. "So Aramis, heard you've been making new friends."

Aramis turned around and laughed. "I'm not scared of you two, and I'm getting more credits from my new "friends" than I do you guys. Now get out of here." he said in a disgusting tone.

The whole cantina was quiet and all eyes were on the scene. Alen then shot Aramis in both of his knee-caps. "Oh God!" Aramis screaming in agony.

"Take us to your weapon stashes, your stuff is ours now buddy! Get up!" Alen yelled.

They both heaved Aramis up and walked him over into the speeder. He gave them directions to his main stash site. They dragged him out of the speeder and in with him into the building. As they walked in his goons all saw what was going on and tried to help Aramis, but Aaron and Alen drilled all of them down before most of them could even pull their blasters out. "Look's like it's all your's now. I guess I'm of no use no more, go ahead kill me." Aramis said in mocking voice.

"Guess you're right, but tell me one more thing, why are the Centaurus out to get us?" Alen asked.

"You'll find out soon enough," Aramis said smiling.

Alen shot his brains out right then and there. We packed up most of the weapons and decided to take them back to the mansion instead of a storage. " Well I think you've earned you're right to get some rest." Alen said to Aaron when they go back.

That's exactly what Aaron did, he headed back to his room and sprawled across his bed. And finally after a day's work, sleep finally pulled Aaron under.
-----------

Wyle Orion stared blankly into the Coruscant skyline. He walked up to Master Eherin and spoke," Master Eherin I have news that you may want to be aware of. Aramis Floto was killed last night in his small office building, ad as you know he was the one I was planning on getting his name out you know? But the Ironfist family, I suspect they had something to do with the killings. Mr. Floto told me they probably wouldn't be happy with the "business" route he was taking. I also noticed they've been part of several other criminal activities lately and I feel something should be done. Because they are clearly not the clean business men they claim to be."

"We'll get a few knights and the law enforcement working on it. Thank you for approaching this matter to me Wyle, may the Force be with you." said Master Eherin to Wyle as he exited the room.

"As with you, Master Eherin." Wyle replied as the door closed behind him.

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 3: A New Enemy
2 BTC

Within in the course of another week since killing Aramis and Hiram, the Centaurus had attacked multiple safehouses and took over several Ironfist owned businesses. Also since then at least 15 or more of there men were killed by Centaurus members. Mr. Ironfist was not happy, not one bit.

Aaron walked into the meeting room in the family mansion. He couldn't believe he was part of the meeting, he felt important, for the meeting was only for higher up status family members. Most of everybody was there so Aaron took a seat beside Cale. Within a few minutes after everyone was settled and ready Mr. Ironfist called the meeting to order. "Listen, as you all know we've been having some troubles from these Centaurus fellows and it's time we did something about it. But before we get a little too violent, I've already got a friendly meeting established with them, to discuss peace terms. I myself will not be going of course, because it would be far too risky, Mr. Hayes, Tilman, Drayson,and Solman will go." explained Mr. Ironfist.

Zekk Drayson stood up and replied back," Are you crazy, peace talk?! They've murdered about fifteen or more of our men within a week! And you want to talk peace with these guys? I'm sure they've agreed just so they can kill us in cold blood while we go to "talk peace"!"

"Well if I would have got to finish Zekk I would've been able to say we'll have snipers on the rooftops watching the whole thing over. If anything goes wrong, they'll handle it. I've also asked that the Centaurus bring 6 men or less, anymore and the meeting is off. So if they've got alot of men coming in get out! The snipers will have your back. I've also asked that they come unarmed, but I'm sure that won't happen. Anyways, here's the point if anything goes wrong, it shouldn't." Mr. Ironfist said giving Zekk a dirty look.

"And if this meeting doesn't go the way we want, this little war continues out the way it's going right now. What do you suppose we do then?" Zekk asked right back.

"That's what we are going to be talking about next. If negotiations are to fail, we'll need to retaliate right away. First, we are gonna take back our businesses. Next, we're taking their businesses! They also have control over multiple deathsicks factories throughout Coruscant, which we will hit all at once, so they won't have much of a chance of doing anything to us. From there on, that's all we know so far. These guys's hideout is hidden very well. And no one seem to knows where it is. But once we find out, we're hitting them hard." Mr. Ironfist said.

"It's sounding good to me," said a Zabrak sitting at the table.

"Well that should be about it, and the meeting is sometime next week so be prepared." said Mr Ironfist looking directly into Aaron's eyes.

--------------

Aaron didn't want to go unarmed to the meeting. The whole setup didn't feel right. Even thought they had snipers surrounding the building he still felt uncertain. But maybe they would arrange peace, Aaron thought, hopefully.He walked out of the mansion and got in the back seat of the speeder. Cale was driving. "Alright, everyone ready? Okay good, here we go." he said as they drove away.

They drove through the sprawling city and finally arrived at a fairly nice looking place farther up in the city. They all walked in and were greeted by one of the Centaurus men. They all walked in a small room and sat down. Before anything could really get started Drayson asked if they could get any light in the room. So one of the Centaurus men opened one of the windows. Only one! Aaron felt a little worried. He felt trapped. "Alright let's get down to business, what we have come here for today is peace. First off we would like to know what is the reason for you attacking and taking our businesses?" Cale asked.

"It's simply as you would refer to it, it's just business. And as for the killings, we truly meant no harm, but you see some of your men had their noses in the wrong places." said one of the men.

"So you refer to murder as business. What kind of vendetta do you have against us?" Aaron asked.

"Our leader, it's a bit of personal business for him, but really none of us wanted it to amount to what it is now." said the same man.

"Who's your leader, what kind of personal business could he possibly have against us?" asked Torin Solman.

"We cannot reveal that at the moment. Sorry, truly." said one of the other Centaurus men.

"Why not, we are trying to come at peace here, aren't we?" asked Cale.

One of their men sighed and the others nodded. "Our leader, he is... Thalo Ironfist, Delmon Ironfist's brother." said the man.

"What?! Mr. Ironfist never mentioned a brother!" yelled Cale.

"That's just the thing, his brother, they never liked each other growing up. Thalo was more of the golden child to their father. They'd always competed with each other. Once they got older, they started a life of crime together, roaming the galaxy. Eventually they went to Nal Hutta. They became mercenaries for this Gossek the Hutt. They served him for years. And once again they both competed to impress the Hutt more, get the most credits in the end. So one day, Gossek, he gave them a job, to take down another Hutt's palace, kill him. More mercs accompanied them when they got there but in the end, they were the only two left standing in front of the injured Hutt. The Hutt offered them all of his credits, to whoever would kill the other. Within a few seconds Delmon made up his mind, and shot Thalo right in the head. Which he thought he killed him. After taking the credits and then killing Gossek as well, Delmon left for Coruscant and so began the start of the Ironfist family crime gang. Thalo said he awakened in a med bay about a week later. He felt his face and he felt solid metal. He looked in the mirror that day and screamed in despair over what he had become. His face was warped he didn't even look human. And on that day he swore revenge. Series of events leading up to now, blah, blah, blah, the end." said one of the Centaurus men.

"Wow, never knew that before." Cale said laughing.

"But now you know there can't be peace now, right? Sorry we had to do this." said one of the men pulling out a hidden blaster.

"Figured that much." Cale said as him, Aaron, Torin, and Zekk all four opened the other windows. And in seconds, all the Centaurus men were lying dead on the floor for the snipers picked them off that easily.

"Let's get outta here," Cale said.
------------
When they got back they told Mr. Ironfist everything. After hearing the shocking news, Mr. Ironfist looked as if he was going to have a heart attack. After a few minutes of thinking he pulled it together. "I guess if there is no peace, than this is war." said Mr. Ironfist with flames in his eyes.

[Kbrury]

I moved this to the Your Story forum, :P anyways everyone give Jareth's Story a read it's pretty good.

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 4: Crackdown
2 BTC

"This place is ours again! You here me? You're gonna start paying us, again and normal price or there are gonna be problems." Aaron said to the shop owner.

It had been a few weeks since the start of the war. Things had gotten ugly within those few weeks though. Tons of men form both families had been killed, not to mention counting innocent bystanders killed. But the Ironfist were starting to take back Coruscant and hopefully deliver the final blows to the Centaurus. "Let's go we got more places to hit," Alen said holding up his blaster.

After hitting a few more businesses and such they started heading back to the mansion. Aaron decided to get something to eat so he headed over to the kitchen area. As soon as he started eating, Cale came in and informed him that he was needed by Mr. Ironfist at the moment. Great, he was starving, but Mr. Ironfist needed him for some apparent reason. Better than being a bum he guessed. As he walked into the room he was surprised to see almost twenty people standing in the small room. "Ah, Mr. Hayes is here, now we can begin." said Mr. Ironfist.

"Now, as you all know, we are starting to turn this whole effort against the Centaurus has been starting to turn in our favor. We're starting to take Coruscant back into our grasp. Now as I had said at the previous meeting the Centaurus own several deathstick plants throughout Coruscant. Well that's our next step and I plan on hitting them tomorrow! We will split the family into three different groups to attack each factory! And almost all of us shall go! Except for I and about ten others who will stay here at the mansion, in case something goes wrong, or they catch onto the plan and send men here. That's about it, you must all be ready tomorrow!" Mr. Ironfist said triumphantly.

"Mr. Ironfist, what would be the reason for us meeting in your office not the meeting room?" said a twi'lek standing in the room.

"I'm feeling lazy today," Mr. Ironfist said with a smile on his face.
-------

The sun shined through Aaron's window as he awoke. He was ready. He was ready to avenge all who had died all who had already died fighting against the cowards, those murderers and monsters. Sure, maybe they weren't better, but this was for the family, his friends, the group of people he loyally devoted himself to now. Everyone else was already informed and was getting ready as the next step was on the horizon. He got his clothes on and headed out into the lobby. "We'll be leaving real soon, and in case you didn't know you're in a group with me and Alen." Cale said to Aaron.

As everyone else was ready we started to get in our speeders. It looked like they had a fleet of them parked outside the mansion. Aaron at that moment just realized how many people were in the family. There had to be at least over three hundred, not counting all those who had died in the course of the few weeks since the war started. As soon as everyone was loaded into each of the speeders they took off. It took what seemed hours to get there, but finally their target was in sight. They were completely separated from the other groups now, they were farther away from the other factories than he thought. He held up his shotgun and was ready for whatever was going to happen next. They all pulled up to the factory and stormed it. The workers weren't ready when they all entered and a small portion were killed within the first few seconds. The rest pulled out there blasters and took cover. Aaron took cover behind one of the factory machines and started wild firing at the enemy. Shot after shot, more and more of the enemy were writhing in pain on the ground in a pool of their blood. Every minute or so one of their guys would go down, but the whole situation was under control for them. Within about ten more minutes most of the Centaurus workers were dead. They all walked together and took out the few survivors.

Aaron looked around and noticed something was missing," Where's Alen?" Aaron asked.

Cale looked around, they all walked around the factory in search of Alen or his body. "No Alen, something ain't right." Cale said.

Just then one of our men shouted as he saw one of the Centaurus men fleeing. They chased. The man got in his speeder and flew off. Everyone followed. They followed the vehicle further and further into the lower levels of Courscant until they came across a huge building with a banner hanging down with a vaguely familiar symbol on it. "That symbol that's usually on the Centaurus vehicles, this is their hideout, their headquarters!" Aaron yelled.

Cale quickly called up Mr. Ironfist and informed him. All that Mr. Ironfist requested was his brother alive. The rest of the groups were already on their way as they entered the building. They opened the door only to reveal tons of thugs ready to fight. It felt like a real battlefield, not some small gang war. Aaron was actually scared! Bullets flew past him, friends died beside him, it felt hopeless. That's when the calvary arrived. The rest of the groups busted through the roof and took out most of the thugs. "Keep moving," Cale yelled.

The groups split up into different rooms. Aaron and the rest of everyone in his group fought through about four more rooms until they reached a small room. Where a man with two big bulky guards stood beside him. "I'm assuming you're Thalos?" asked Cale.

"Yes, it would seem so, and you must be Delmon's mutts." said Thalos Ironfist.

"You have nowhere to go! Surrender Thalos, your brother wants you alive, there's no use in fighting back." said Cale calmly.

"No, it is you who have nowhere to go!" said a voice from behind them.

The sound of lightsabers igniting came from behind. They all turned around to see about five or six Jedi and about twenty Coruscant law enforcement officers.

"It appears as of you were right Wyle, you've done good." said an older looking Jedi.

"Master Eherin this wouldn't have all came to be if it weren't for my friend Alen Long. He approached me a couple weeks back and has been feeding me information since." said Wyle Orion.

"Alen you traitor! We'll get you for this!" Aaron yelled.

"Not for sometime, you'll be locked away for a long time." said a law enforcement officer.

They handcuffed them all, and those who resisted and tried to escape were cut down by the Jedi. They loaded everyone in the compound into many different prison speeders. Within hours, they were each being put into their cold lonely cells. Aaron sat alone in his cell. It had all come to this. This is what being a criminal got him. He laid down in his hard bed and drifted off to sleep, which he planned to do for a long time.

[SecretWeapon]

Loving it so far Jareth

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 5: The Sacking
0 BTC

It had been two miserable years since Aaron had been arrested and put in prison. Two years since Alen had betrayed him! Aaron had heard those who were at the mansion went into hiding after the incident. On the bright side of things, the Centaurus had been put right in prison with them. Aaron honestly didn't know how many more years they would keep them in this dreaded prison. He looked down at his body. He'd grown rather muscular while he had been kept in the prison. He couldn't even remember how many fights he had already got into. Lunch didn't settle with him very well today, never really did. So to ease the pain he layed down and went to sleep while his stomach growled in pain.

Aaron awoke to the sound of explosions. He heard them everywhere, not just the sound of a single grenade growing but almost what seemed like bombs. A guard ran through the hall yelling in horror,"The Sith, their bombarding the planet!" he yelled.

What! How? How could the Sith pull this off in the heart of the Republic. Another guard ran past, "Wait help! Unlock this door, don't let me die here please!" Aaron yelled.

The guard ran back and unlocked the door. Aaron was suprised to see such gratitiude form a guard to a prisoner."Thank you, I owe you my life." Aaron said.

"If we make it out of here alive run!" yelled the guard.

Aaron departed from the guard and started running to the courtyard exit. The whole prison was crumbling around him. Prisoners all yelled for help, for they were all stuck in the very cells that would be their very deaths. Aaron wasn't going to die like that though. He was free. As he heaved himself through the front doors he looked up on shock to see multiple Sith cruisers bombarding the entire city. He looked around to see Sith troopers all over the place. Storming buildings firing at random at innocent civilians. It was a nightmare. Aaron had to get off this planet one way or another. He jumped in a parked speeder and started driving. Hopefully the old family shipyard was still there! It had to be, it was fairly hidden. And even if they did bust it, why take the ships? Surely they just took the guys working their! Aaron was about to find out.

As he pulled in he saw few ships left but a ton of people scrambling to get them. He looked up at a sign, Klargeel's Shipyard. Some poor sap made a business out of it. Good for him. Aaron ran quickly out into fray. He saw a small ship that could fit about five or six people in it. And he saw a very familiar man holding everyone back. "Mr. Ironfist!" Aaron yelled.

He saw Mr. Ironfist look over at him with a look of joy on his face. "Aaron! In hurry and then we must go if these people will get back." said Mr. Ironfist shoving more crowds of people back.

As Aaron boarded someone from the crowd fired a blaster. Mr. Ironfist fell back, with a hole in between his eyes. Aaron howled in rage. He scanned the crowd and saw the man. He had just killed the man he served for almost a year, the man he so loyally devoted himself to. Aaron lept at the man and brought him down, he disarmed his weapons and fired. He killed him. Aaron got up to see more people trying to board the ship. He gunned them all down and got on himself. "Shut the door!" Aaron yelled to whoever was pilot.

And in about a minute it finally shut and they took off. Aaron walked into the cockpit only to find Zekk Drayson piloting the ship and a couple other of Mr. Ironfist's loyal advisors. "Where's Delmon?" asked one of them.

Aaron went back into the section of the small ship where Mr. Ironfist's body lay. He carried the body into the cockpit. Everyone in the ship stared in shock at the body. "A man in the crowd shot him, I took care of the killer." Aaron said.

"I can't believe this. After all these years..." said one of the men.

"We've got more problems to worry about!" Drayson yelled worriedly.

They all looked forward to see the Sith fleet in front of their eyes. "I hope you're a good pilot Zekk!" Aaron yelled.

"Nope!" Drayson yelled. They sped past the fleet as they were being shot and barely avoiding each one.

After a few seconds of absolute horror, they managed to get past the fleet. "Where are we going?" Drayson yelled.

"Anyone up for the one of biggest cesspool in the galaxy? Hyperspace jump to Nar Shaddaa ." Aaron said with a smile on his face.

[Garlen Durakkis]

SecretWeapon wrote:

Loving it so far Jareth

Thank you! And as for Chapter 5 I know it's kinda short but I'm just kind of leading it off of Coruscant!

[timaselj]

This is great! But I just spotted something I don't like very much. You wrote that the Jedi cut down people who were running. N-E-V-E-R. Law enforcements gun them down would be acceptable. (in some kind of acceptable at least) But never Jedi. (Sorry but I just can't help myself being a smartass every now and then.)

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 6: Decisions
0 ATC

Aaron sat in the apartment staring at the floor. He looked up to see garbage piled upon garbage sitting all over the room. Is this what he wanted? Mr. Ironfist was dead. What would he do now? The Ironfist Family was without a leader, without an Ironfist. The family was no more, all that remained was him, Drayson, and a few of Mr. Ironfist's advisors. Drayson and the others walked in. "Ugh, this place is an absolute dump!" said one of the advisors, sounded disgusted.

"Are you all always this picky!? "You're lucky we are here! What happened in the two years me and almost all our boys rotted in that horrid prison?!" Aaron asked angrily.

Drayson stepped forward, "Ah, Aaron. Let's start from the beginning. Myself and the others stayed with Delmon. We expected you guys to be in and out. To, you know wipe out the Centaurus. But as soon as we received news of the arrests we hid. We left the mansion, went way outside the city. To an old, small, abandoned house. And boy did we hide. We stayed there for so long. Of course we kept up with the news and such, but those two years were full of sitting in that house. Doing nothing. We heard nothing of anymore dominant gangs. The Centaurus as you know were wiped put that day. So were we. We occasionally went to town for food and such, and from our point of view Coruscant was actually what seemed, peaceful. So there you have it, nothing happened in the two years. As soon as we heard the blasts from the Sith ships reigning down on Coruscant, we sped to the shipyard and here we are now. And in case you're all sad because Mr. Ironfist is dead, how the family is gone, it's been gone for two years now! We're following you now. So what you gonna do, wallow in your own pity, or do something?!" Drayson explained as his speech heated up towards the end.

"Wait, you guys are following me? Listen, I was only in the family for a few months! I'm nothing. If anybody should lead it should be one of you. All of you have much more experience than me." Aaron replied.

"Are you kidding me? Experience, what the hell you talking bout' Hayes? You have potential! That's what you have. You have this natural glow about ya. The talents of a leader!" Drayson yelled encouragingly.

Aaron smiled. Maybe Zekk was right. "I guess so. But what are we going to do? Who are we gonna recruit? Where are we gonna get weapons? How are we gonna start producing money? What are we gonna do?" Aaron asked all at once.

"Don't ask, just do." Drayson said smiling.
-----------

After talking for a bit the three advisors finally introduced themselves, the older twi'lek was Agnook Reumar. The dark headed human's name was Alvis Muro and lastly the grey-haired human's name Bernon Cors. They had all been with Mr. Ironfist since the start and had stuck with him since then. And they swore to do the same for Aaron. But honestly to him, it was all a little overwhelming. But who else would lead? These guys were followers not leaders. He was the only one who could possibly lead a new "gang". Another thought popped in his head name. What would be their name. The Ironfists were dead, what were they now?

"Hey, guys have you thought of a name yet, for us, I mean we can't stay the Ironfist family." Aaron said to everyone.

"Not really, but we could simply go, The Hayes Family? In honor of you. That's what we did for Delmon." said Bernon.

Aaron thought about it. Yeah seemed kind of basic but, hey he liked the idea of a bunch of guys fighting under his name, for him. This is what Aaron was... destined for!

"Yeah that works. So what are we gonna do first?" Aaron asked.

"You and your questions." said Zekk laughing.

[Garlen Durakkis]

I'll try and start posting more, been kinda lazy lately

[Garlen Durakkis]

timaselj wrote:

This is great! But I just spotted something I don't like very much. You wrote that the Jedi cut down people who were running. N-E-V-E-R. Law enforcements gun them down would be acceptable. (in some kind of acceptable at least) But never Jedi. (Sorry but I just can't help myself being a smartass every now and then.)

Yeah, maybe went a little too dark with the Jedi lol. But I was kinda meaning fighting back too, not really running in fear. My bad

[timaselj]

Jareth Sudeken wrote:

timaselj wrote: This is great! But I just spotted something I don't like very much. You wrote that the Jedi cut down people who were running. N-E-V-E-R. Law enforcements gun them down would be acceptable. (in some kind of acceptable at least) But never Jedi. (Sorry but I just can't help myself being a smartass every now and then.) Yeah, maybe went a little too dark with the Jedi lol. But I was kinda meaning fighting back too, not really running in fear. My bad

Don't be apologizing to me! D< I was merely pointing out that I didn't like something much D< It was a... how do you say... uhm... well the same thing is with paintings... some guy who is famous for telling flaws or good things comes, looks at picture and if he says it's good, it's worth millions and the painter is instantly recognized as a good one. I was doing the same thing as theese people I was just describing, just that it won't be worth anything or whatever. I was just poiting it out, nothing more

[Garlen Durakkis]

Chapter 7: New Kids in Town
0 ATC

It'd been a few days after Aaron made his decision to take charge, they had already made allies with a small group of trandoshans, who had been giving them a few friendly tips on Nar Shaddaa. Other thugs shrugged them off, didn't mind them, had no idea who they were but Aaron wouldn't keep that the same. Soon they would be feared across the planets, across the galaxy. Aaron had big plans. But everything big and amazing always starts out small and unimpressive. "Ready for the meeting?" Drayson asked.

Aaron looked at himself in the mirror. Very snazzy, and classy. He liked it. "Yes let's be taking our leave." Aaron replied to Drayson.

They both got in the speeders and headed their way down to a small pazaak joint to meet these "business partners" of theirs. As they pulled up two wookies stood outside the pazaak club. He could roughly understood wookie but he knew they meant the guys they were looking for inside. They walked in and heard the sound of winners and losers all throughout the pazaak den. He looked in the far corner to see the table with their future associates. "Are you Aaron Hayes?" asked a rather younger human male.

"Yes and I'm assuming you're the men I am to be meeting with?" Aaron said back.

"Yes, pleased to meet you, Tyris Elson." he greeted. The other figure a quarrren stood up and shook Aaron's hand, "Quam Tao-Ni." said the quarren.

"Yes nice to might you all this is my partner, Zekk Drayson, now let's get down to business." Aaron said as Drayson shook both their hands.

As they sat down Elson started," Ok, I understand you guys are new to Nar Shaddaa. Now we could really be helping you out, We are a group who is partnered with The Exchange, and you could really be using our help. So tell you what, you pass a few credits here and there and we'll help you out."

"I heard the Exchange ain't doing so well these days. But, anyways, how much credits are you proposing we pay?" Drayson asked.

"It will vary somewhere around about five-hundred a month." Eslon replied.

"And what will these five-hundred credits exactly get us?" Aaron asked.

"Protection, weapons, small safehouses and what not here and there. It all pays off down the long road. It's also an excellent way to get recognized the business that we all partake in." Elson said smiling.

Aaron stared at Drayson. What should he do? Drayson gave him the kinda look that meant it's up to you. Aaron thought for a few seconds and answered, "We'll take you up on it. It's a deal."

"Excellent, we'll meet up again every once in a while or so and stay in touch. Nice doing business with you Mr. Hayes." Quam said.

Quam and Tyris were the first to leave. Shortly after, Aaron and Zekk walked out and drove back to the apartments. Things were turning out better than he thought. When they got back they saw the older advisors standing outside, big bulky men looming over them. "Hey what are you doing?" Aaron yelled pulling out his blasters pointing it at the thugs.

"This is a misunderstanding. We are moving you out of here. Courtesy of The Exchange we are moving you to a slightly better location." said one of the men.

"I'm sorry. So where are we going?" Aaron asked.

"Get in the speeder." said one of them.

It was a luxurious looking eight seater. They drove across the city to a small house. They walked in to reveal a four bedroom house. "Wow, what can I say? All of this just for partnering with The Exchange?" Aaron asked.

"Very much, anyways we shall be leaving now, enjoy." they said walking out the door.

Aaron walked over to a couch to find a small note. He found a note lying on it. He looked closely to see writing. "To the New Guys" it said.

Best choice he ever made.