[DM RedMenace]?

???

When I was a child my visions brought me nothing but fear. I saw the sky burn with a malice that was only quenched with a malice of equal measure. I saw distant, endless oceans roil with conflict. Warriors clashing with beasts from a evil moon above their sky. Heroes falling to evil. Villains rising to the light before being lost to the darkness.

I foresaw my own death.

My father sought advice from anyone who would offer it within our village and beyond. He taught me ways to keep me grounded during these episodes. To look away and keep my vision at home. My mother however, revealed to me a secret. That her mother was not of this planet. That she had fallen from the sky long ago, wielding a blade of light. She told me that my visions are a gift from my grandmother’s heritage, possibilities, portents of portential futures that I could allow to come to pass, or avert.

I foresaw my own death.

When I was older our home was found by the Republic. We were brought into a greater galaxy, full of secrets and greater possibilities. I decided to set forth, with my grandmother’s blade and my sight to guide me. I learned many, many things. I honed my abilities. Uncovered their nature. I was urged to seek out an monastic order so that my skills could be put to a higher purpose. I considered it, but my sight showed me other paths. I expended influence. I reached across worlds, using my foresight to make decisions others mistook for extreme luck or extreme cunning. The more I reached out, the more potential paths I foresaw, the more possible futures I could choose to live in if I wished.

I foresaw my own death.

It haunted me. No matter how I tried to look to another path, it all reached the same destination. I knew that death would be inescapable, all things must die eventually. But this manner of death, I did not want it. I did not choose it. I looked into ways to avert it, reached further and further. Tapped more paths than I had ever before. Then I found it, hidden in the most unlikely of places.

I found it within a scarecrow.

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???

It wasn’t glitzy. It wasn’t going to make him famous. There weren’t cameras broadcasting his name across the holonet like there used to be. It was literally just a repurposed sewer instead of an actual swoop track. But none of that mattered, like everything on Nar Shaddaa it was dangerous, thrilling, exciting.

The swoop bike zoomed past an air vent. Sending oxygen through an ecumenopolis like the Smuggler’s Moon required an extremely delicate system of pressurized air to circulate through the lower wards of the city. They were meticulously maintained, failures in the system detected and taken care of within the day.

They were also used as obstacles on the swoop track, a blast of air could send the swoop careening of course into a wall.

He loved Nar Shaddaa.

He loved swoop racing.

There’s a point in the swoop track where workers need to cross to move shipments for Vogga. Do they get warned that a race is happening? Eh, sometimes. They can’t afford to clear the track anyway. He zoomed toward a loader and hit the repulsorlift, jumping above the workers who let out cries of terror and ducked their heads. He laughed, afraid? He wasn’t afraid of anything.

The further he continued the faster he went, kicking his swoop into higher gear as the engine started to rev. It was coming to his favourite part of the track. The Chicken Tube. Money is everything in Nar Shaddaa, a single race takes 30 minutes to prepare, one hour to complete, 30 minutes to clear the track. Two hours per racer, if you had a racer on schedule all day you would be able to get twelve races. That’s 2400 credits a day in registration fees, disregarding the cut you make from betting. But that’s also disregarding that you need to close up and rest, or that some people only want to race in the afternoon, or on certain days of the week. How do you squeeze in more time to make more money? Easy, more racers on the track. Double the racers and you double the credits, it’s easy. Even better? Make the second racer run the track in reverse, so that swoops could potentially collide. People love seeing a near miss, it gets them excited. They love seeing swoop crashes even more.

He loved Nar Shaddaa

He loved swoop racing.

And he loved The Chicken Tube.

The Chicken Tube was called such because it was a single stretch through an old transport tube. It’s roughly a single swoop bike in size across. Vertically it can fit two swoops easily, if two swoops entered at opposite sides both will get out the other end. So long as someone hits the repulsorlift. Problem is, hitting the repulsorlift slows your acceleration. You’ll lose time. Whoever hits the lift first loses, so if you want to be the best you have to be the one who stays down. You can’t chicken out. You can’t be afraid of anything.

He could hear it before he saw it, someone else was in the tube. He hit his top speed and zoomed in gleefully. He saw the other swoop racer. The two bikes roared toward each other, the screams of their engines bouncing off the walls of the tube and echoing loudly. He laughed. He wasn’t afraid. It was only a few seconds, but adrenaline stretched it into an eternity. Who would fold, who would jump? Or maybe neither of them would, maybe this was it. Maybe this was the day he die-

With a loud burst his opponent leapt up at the last second, zooming over him. He rocketed out of the Chicken Tube, victorious and reached the end of the track soon after.

Of course he didn’t break. He never would. He had to stare fear in the face every day and make it fear him instead. That’s what he did. That’s what he was best at. That’s what he loved doing.

Because he was a ScareCrow.

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VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT OF PERSONS OF INTEREST #63225 AND #63226

LOCATION: Cadomai Prime

Notes: Identifiers have been redacted, refer to Taris casefile #4352 for information on who these are, it’ll be an old one. You probably remember it, covering up what happened in Coruscant because of these people was a nightmare and I’d rather not have a repeat.

(Agent was unable to catch the start of the conversation, but we think this is in relation to Person of Interest #65312, I’ve forwarded you the related document.)

#63226: ABSOLUTELY NOT

#63225: Come on, [#63226]!

#63226: Nuh uh, No way, Never again! I knew I shouldn’t have invited you out here.

#63225: [#63226] I need your help on this.

#63226: Look kid-

#63225: I’m not a kid anymore.

#63226: Look, YOUNG ADULT, I’ve got a good thing going on here. I’ve got franchises in every major trade line. I’m even opening one in Nar Shaddaa! I don’t have time to go on these crazy adventures anymore.

#63225: [#63226]

#63226: {#63225]… You’ve got your own good thing going too right, with [#63228]? Did you get enough of this in the wars? After everything that happened with [EXPUNGED] you still went out there.

(Data on this person of interest has been near completely expunged, but this is referring to Taris casefile #4352.)

#63225: I need you to look at this.

#63226: What’s that?

#63225: Do you recognise it?

#63226: Uhhh… Looks like one of those doohickys we picked up on [PLANET7]

(Again, refer to the case file for details)

#63225: I took that photo three weeks ago.

#63226: -

#63225: The blast didn’t destroy them all. They’re out there. And it’s because of us. Because of what we did.

#63226: -

#63225: You told me once that your people play at things. Adventures, politics, crime.

#63226: We do.

#63225: You told me that you love the game.

#63226: -

#63225: I need a real player for this, I’ve got a little bit of a plan, but it needs someone to fix it. I need a -

#63226: A Mastermind.

#63225: -

#63226: Alright kid. What’s your plan?

#63225: Okay well, you know how you mentioned Nar Shaddaa…?

(At this point #63225 and #63226 entered the back of the building outside of recording range. Agents are currently tailing them. Will report when they make a move.)

Two men duck behind a garbage bin in an alley in Nar Shaddaa, flustered and confused. “I don’t understand!” the taller one says “It was going well, it was working! What happened?”

The other, a smaller, fatter alien grumbled as he pulled out a datapad, checking his investments “If this gets back to my resturaunt kid…”

“The sale was going through! They had no idea… What tipped them off?”

“Hey, Kid…” The smaller man spoke up, his voice dripping with concern “How often do you check the holonet?”

–

Across the holonet, on back channels and shady message boards, a posting circulates.

Looking to buy: Yellow resin cubes with stuff in them. Apparently Sith stuff. Don’t try to screw me I know what I’m looking for. Sale starts at 50k. – 01000011

–

Sorene leaned back in her chair, cackling with glee as she cast aside her datapad, drawing a questioning look from her first mate. “Captain? Something up?”

“Aye Sheriun. Things are indeed looking up. Set a course for the Haven, we’ve got a new lead to follow!”

The engines of the Starlight Emperor flare to life as the ship shoots into hyperspace.

–

A Hutt rolls over in his empty villa, licking his lips as he considers his options. This might be just the boost he needs…

–

Two brothers throw fists at each other, accusations of whose fault this is loudly rumbling through the room in their species bassy, thunderous voice.

–

“You know what this means, right?” a woman said to her team leader, her voice heavy with sorrow.

The team leader nodded, closing the terminal as he let out a mournful sigh. “She killed him. We need to get to Nar Shaddaa, now.”

–

The aged woman opened her eyes, done viewing the various consequences of her actions. She is certain things were nudged in the correct direction, but just to be sure she concentrates, reaches out to her future once more.

And she foresees her own death.