SW Mafia: Out with a bang (Mafia #4)

Kavitha watched drearily as the gruney levitated past.

Shaking her head, she left the sullen crowd to have some time to think.

"Sure!" she thought, "This is all horrible, but, hell this is nothing compared to my own problems." Yeah, a couple lunatics killing Jedi were a problem, but, having the Empire on your tail for what she had done? Much worse.

She found her feet leading her again to the bar and the most critical moment in her life played in her head again, like a broken holo, looping.

The flash, the electromagnetic wash that fried half her sensors, and the realization that the people she had once worked for were now likely to kill her rather than help her.

She wished she could turn it off, like she could with a the holo. No, this one wouldn't stop. News from the rest of the galaxy had been scarce since she arrived on Kessel and even more rare now that they were under siege by some renegade force; but, she had heard reports of the death tolls and estimated repair costs. 50,000 dead, half that injured and billions of credits worth of damage.

She slowly exhaled as she lowered herself onto the barstool.

"Hey, can I get a drink please? The usual."

She was beginning to hate who she had become. Would she spend the rest of her years hopping from backwater world to backwater world; making just enough using her skills to pay her bartab and fuel for the jumps between? She couldn't tell.

Likely she would be killed by some denizen of such an establishment, a spice addict coming down from a particularly powerful trip, a drunk blaming her for the xenocentric Empire, or maybe, if she was lucky enough, a headhunter seeking to earn some cash.

"I said, can I get a drink?!" she called louder this time, but still the bartender didn't reveal himself. She had been here a lot, and didn't remember leaving more then one time. Perhaps she wasn't welcome here anymore.

Nothing new.

As she rose to leave she paused, and glanced around the room. Nobody was here; odd.

It felt like the Bent Lekku all over again, something wasn't right. She reached for her blasters but instead dove out of the way as she heard the high-pitched whine of a blaster warming up to fire. Hitting the ground, she tucked and rolled, hoping to spring up at a run; either to charge her attacker, or to sprint for the door, but a table stopped her as she smashed into it hard.

Shaking the sparks from her vision, she stood up quick and drew her blaster. She aimed it at her attackers head; saw the briefest flash of fear run through the cruel eyes and then heard a voice from behind her.

"I hope you know how to fire a blaster without a charge, otherwise that won't be doing much."

Glancing at her energy readout she suddenly realized someone had drained her charges. She was firing blanks.

The impact of the stun charge sent her flying and the world turned black.

8==8O8==8

Kavitha awoke, bound to one of the bar's many chairs and knew she was lucky to be alive.

It seemed someone had saved her, whoever it was she was grateful.

She didn't even have a chance to comprehend the sudden flash and earshattering boom as the thermal detonator's blast ripped through her.