Deuces are Wild

Where am I? Who am I?
What the hell happened!?!?!

I struggled to come out of the black depths within my mind at the overtowering dizziness i still felt. I thought for a second that i was a goner when my ship was hit out of the blue by some guild i had never heard of before as i arrived at Central. It took some moments before I came aware of my surroundings,and i realized that where i was at, looked familiar...I was in a bar. Not just any bar...but the Pink Flomingo! Here you could get anything if the price was right. In a flash I remembered why the smells of perfume mixed with hempweed and jackleaf smoke seemed so familiar,along with the raucous laughter and dazzling pyrotechnic displays, this was my favorite trading post.

The almost naked bodies of women parading in front of my table,dressed in sheer silk that was considered clothing in the barest sort of way, had enticed me many a night to spread my creds around. They say sheer silk is like wearing nothing at all and glancing up at the brunette before me i totally agreed.

I patted myself down,wallet,.....check,id,....check,creds,...check,guild card....check, the only thing missing was my pride, and boy did that hurt.....

I was outside my normal trading routes when i signed up for the job, the money was just too good..... just shy of 6 parsecs. That's like making runs halfway across the 'verse but out in space you make your own luck..... when all you have is time you find something to fill it up. I had been making trading runs for over 3 years without a hitch, made good on my routes and i was rewarded with bonuses at the Pink Flomingo. Sure I'd gotten in trouble with the local registrar and even collected derbs sometimes on moons when no one was looking, i wasn't exactly what you would call a goody two shoes. But I did my job, and i did it right!

So what had gone wrong? I didn't believe in space bogeys, so why were my scanners showing normal traffic when i arrived at Central when all hell broke loose? Why was my ship Pirated? Broke into like a kid smashing a piggy bank? My ship was attacked and boarded from some guild named Blood, that much i do remember before seeing the back end of a laser rifle across my forehead. I was dead, and I knew it when they turned their battleships on my Freight liner and started a salvo of Ion beams. I managed to find an escape pod and climb inside but the air in my lungs was sucked out as the hatch closed....the air around me had caught on fire!

So how and why had I managed to survive?

It was at that moment that I heard a clunk on the table and Soaproot washed over my hand, i hurriedly brushed the liquid off on a nearby rag. Soaproot was what the locals called the brew that would take the paint and corrosion off your spaceship and restore the metal to a high shine. It also had a nasty habit of making you drunk but with clarity of all senses heightened. Attached to the mug was this outlandishly dressed backwater slug of a guy that I didn't want to know. He had no hair to speak of on his head,and his body was covered in tattoos,if he was my benefactor I hoped i could get away from him as soon as possible. Garish dressed people like him were known smugglers,spies,and notoriously evil scouts.

They were the kind of people who never slept at night and for the right price sold intel about fleets to the highest bidder. He reached out a hand in the antiquated gesture of old earth....palm up to show he had no weapons in them. Then he did me the honor of introducing himself as I slowly reached out my hand and shook his. " Nice to see you among the living Nihil, my name is Komuso.."

Normally I would have bolted for the door right there as his name was well known in these parts, but seeing as my ship was toast and i was temporarily out of a job i decided to see where this was going. "You're probably wondering why i hauled your sorry arse back into the living....its because I have a job for you...." " I don't let my traders escape so easily,besides you're a good pilot who has been making my runs for 3 years " I was slightly amazed at what i was hearing...Komuso my boss for over 3 years? That's when he reached into his neckline and pulled out his guild card that was on a gold chain " look familiar Nihil? " Komuso replied. There it was right in front of me....a FAIL Guild Card! I had unwittingly been doing my job for a Guildmaster and I didn't even know it!

 
A pretty lady slid onto his lap,except she was dressed in leathers,that alone stirred my interests as all the time i had ever come to the Pink Flomingo I had never seen any female with anything on besides sheer silk. "Whatcha staring at Nihil? Never seen my wife before??" Komuso just grinned as the lady slipped him some tongue and rifled through his pockets and pulled out 1000 creds.

She turned away and started tipping the women on the stage,never before had I seen anything like it...a woman tipping a dancer! Komuso looked at me and said " you never will Nihil....why you think I married her?" " Lets get down to business....I have a job for you and it entails changing your perceptions of space and time. I want you to take over part of my business....you will no longer be just a trader." " Me?" I replied. " You want ME to take over a business? "

"Yes", he replied....and thats not all....you will be in charge of building that business from the ground up and i trust you to know what Trade routes need to be filled to make sure you have the highest econ available." Here I was..... stunned! I was without a ship....without a Home! and without a Job...... and it was all given back to me! "To What do i have the honor to entitle this?" I replied. He looked and me rather curiously as he said "It's because you have some rather special knowledge of a certain place Nihil..... and only you have scanner coverage governing that space"

For 3 years you have been docking your ship in port and watching fleet movements, you are the one who knows what is moving,when it's moving and who is moving what fleet....I consider that knowledge worth having." Should you decide to accept my generous offer i only require one thing..... 
"Name it" i said.

Komuso gestured with his thumb up and pointed and pulled me over to a hidden cubicle. A slow hum filled the air and a handheld machine of some sorts imprinted a design, a glyph into my skin. " Welcome home brother.... Now,let's get you acquainted with managing a business more worthy of your talents....from now on you fight with us, just one thing left. Here is a new guild card...." I glanced at it....PSFM...my new guild and i couldn't wait to show them what i knew!!!!

I couldn't believe it, my luck had changed from the bottom of the barrel to the cream at the top! I might be new in the guild but i knew i would go farther for having a guild worthy of serving our cause.

All because I docked and traded at Central in the TIE Sector.