Ecstasy of Credits 10.048

[Aurelias Kazaar]

Aurelias Kazaar was staring at the speeder wreckage. His head still hurt a bit from where a shard from his house went through his left cheek, but over all he felt okay physically. Mentally, something was gnawing at him. Like a craving that wouldn't go away. It made no sense how a small-time pirate gang who'd tended to rob locals from Taanab of food and a few credits were able to afford a Nemesis-class gunship.. Especially if they had patched up clothes and used a piece of shit speeder which exploded after taking moderate damage from a rail detonator and a light turret. It hung inside his brain and refused to stop.

He knelt down next to the body of one of the pirates. The human had little which would identify him or tell him where he was from. Kazaar pulled 20 credits from the pirate's jacket and pocketed it. He wouldn't keep the dead man's blaster, it was too cheap to be any use. Another odd thing which increased the gnawing. The next pirate told him nothing, except for yielding 35 credits and another cheap blaster. He found another 50 credits going through the pockets of the rest. Booze money for later.

Kazaar finally got to the leader. His frayed Imperial jacket had been burned and a piece of shrapnel had gone right through his chest. Something Kazaar noticed was a red circle-like tattoo on the leader's chest. That stuck with him too, but he wasn't sure why. The ex-bounty hunter poked through the guy's pockets, pulling out 200 credits, an S-5 heavy blaster and finally found a small datapad and a holocom.

He looked at the datapad first. It wasn't password protected and Kazaar was able to sift through its contents. Nothing too interesting, except for a guide on how to use the gunship and a map of the farms and ranches on the planet. His wasn't on it, nor was his now-dead neighbor's. Probably meant the two guys he'd blasted down the day before were surveying. Possibly seeing who was going to pay up and who wasn't. They never got the chance to enter in the data because he and Lilaena De'Ville had killed them all. She was hopefully still sleeping in his bunker with the blanket he'd put on her body before going outside.

The holocom was password protected, which meant 'Trey,' his R7 droid, would have to unlock it. Hopefully it would have the secrets he needed.

The sun was just coming up as Kazaar turned back towards the road to his ruined home. It was time to find where his weapons and hat were buried in the rubble. Then he'd see who sold these assholes their high-powered death machine. And kill every last one of the bastards.