While moving through the ecumenopolis of I am waylaid by at least a dozen other people. At first I wondered how can there be THIS many idiots living on the planet that would waylay an individual that could clearly take care of themselves, or in this particular case, is surrounded by a bunch of what are clearly battle droids. But then I noticed something. Each time a group of scavs would pick over the left overs, the idiots were usually young 'bangers' that needed something to prove on someone else, and a lot of them were drunk or high.

  After the first several, and my bots identifying these scavs, I realised a simple truth. The scavs were the ones sending in the waste. Really, most were more than smart enough to realize I was trouble, more than trouble. The mandalorian in the crowd was simply not somebody that I wanted to tangle with, but he instead punched the scav that was trying to 'encourage' them to tangle with me. This scav was then quickly pounced on by other scavs, beaten, and what little he had was taken from him. I then saw this particular scav more and more.

  So after the third dumbass, I instead had one of my B2s loot the individual of anything truly valuable like cred sticks and his blaster. However, I did not need a dozen blasters so I instead had the B2 stomp on it while the onlookers watched. There were several onlookers that cried out as I did so, some even looked like they were about to charge me for it. I simply stared them down as my droid crushed the blaster with a little pop. This got rid of a large amount of the scavs. It also explained why the jedi always seemed to have trouble in these parts, they could never do something like this, which only cemented with what I did next.

  I was getting tired of the jerk that thought I didn't notice him because he was a lowly scav. So, after the third time he started talking to what was clearly a heavily armored bounty hunter I had my droid simply shoot him where he stood. This caused a few drawn weapons, but even the Hutt enforcer simply gave me a nod and moved along. Here power and hierarchy was LAW. That simple scav was flaunting it, saw he got flaunted. This further reduced the scavs even more. They thought I hadn't noticed, and I did, so like the animals they were, they ran.

  Still, a few more scavs, and a lot more trendoshans who thought I had a higher 'score' now and I was making a much better pace to my destination. You would think that having droidika with active shields up, and a bunch of menacing, armored B2s would be enough to deter people more. Maybe it was just the sheer amount of drugs flowing through Nar Shaddaa, or the fact that the only people unassailable were the Hutts, and even that had air quotes around it.

  On the turn through a back alley just before my destination there was a group of maybe ten thugs blocked one side of the alley. Instantly my droids closed ranks, with the droidika shields whirring. "It seems you have some interesting droids there, mind sharing them with us?" asked the apparent leader. Ahh, I had attracted the gangs then. "This doesn't concern one such as yourself, leave." I stated. I wanted to make it clear that it was far above their paygrade.

  The six thugs that came from behind made it clear that he thought differently. This was clearly an ambush and he thought he had an advantage. No, there were more coming in, a seventh and an eighth. This was likely his entire gang, all coming to get one big score. "At least tell me which of the little bastards put you up to this, so that I can kill them after you." I stated. They seemed to find this funny, as if they were the ones in control. But I could see the sweat building up on most of their foreheads from the pressure, the ones that sweat at least.

  "I'm going to enjoy your sweet richie ass after we take that delicious payday offworlder. Then..." Someone fired, it was a surprise to everybody, as it bounced off my droidika, a stupid mistake, as yet more thugs ran around either side of the alley. It probably saved more of this gangs life. My droids opened fire. B2s moved around the droidika firing with their wrist mount repeaters. My droidika fire thier twin blaster canons obliterating those that withstood the repeaters, or ducked behind cover. The leader himself was the first targeted. He had dodged well, I could see why he had been the leader, probably some force bullshit.

  Their leader was not saved by whatever it was that let him survive the first round. It was not surprise that without a lightsaber to block blaster bolts he was quickly gunned down by my B2s. I was intrigued by the work of the B2s, the repeater seemed to be very useful, if much more wide spread and inaccurate. As they say, you don't need no accuracy if you spray and pray. Soon all the would be thieves were gunned down, my B2s only having some light carbon scaring that would be buffed out later. My droidika had done the work as shields as intended, Though they did more than that.

  Of course, this was not something that could go unnoticed by the Hutts. Soon Hutt enforcers arraived at the scene. The leader of the gang, still somehow breathing, unlike most of his compatriots, reached out to the scantily dressed slave girl leading the enforcers. "Please, he attacked us, kolto..." he begged in stilted basic. The slave girl kicked his reaching hand and stomped on it. Then she grabbed a blaster from the ground and shot him in the head.

  I had already waved down the droids when the enforcers arrived. Attacking a gang was one thing, but slaves and droids were owned by somebody, and usually that meant that was somebody that should not be messed with a Nar Shaddaa. But, not everybody would get the message, yet another reason why Jedi were constantly harassed here.

  "My apologies, one such as yourself should not have to deal with these messes. We could offer you escort, should you wish to continue to tour our beautiful Nar Shaddaa." She stated, as if there wasn't still blood on her pumps. It dawned on me then, the Hierarchy of Nar Shaddaa. First was the lowest, scavs, orphans, people that didn't exist. Then there was the gangs and bounty hunter, with their thugs in between. From there it was the lowest slaves and droids. Then it was the Hutt enforcers, these were basically untouchable, everyone else had someone actively suppressing them, but Hutt enforcers were basically free. Then there was the favored slaves, they had a hierarchy of their own, which was multiplied by their master. And finally there was the Hutts themselves.

  It also dawned on me that this was not slavery, at least not in the way I knew it, it was a strict caste system with a little bit of meritocracy sprinkled in for flavor. The useful survived, the useless died, and offworlders where the whetting stone to polish them all. If they lived and succeeded they moved up in the caste, and it could take literal generations for the lesser folk... But not the Hutts. Though, there were some exceptions.

  "While I could never say no to such a lovely thing, it isn't so hard for me to say no to such brutes you surround yourself with. And I would never put one such as yourself with danger, especially with protecting a useless thing such as I." I stated. She inclined her head and smiled, but it was tagruta smile of a predator, not the tagruta smile of a lass being charmed. I had understated it, she could probably bend me over her knee and my B2s as well. Impressive since they were basically uparmed loader droids, the strongest type of droid. The favored were all assassins, at least those that were out and about. If it was a house slave, then maybe it had other uses such as taxes, technicians, and the like, but not her, no not her.

  "Then we will be on our way, we must protect the common and downtrodden afterall." she said. I nodded and watched her leave, but my eyes were not on her ass. Ryll was a language I was very familiar with even if I didn't have the appropriate appendages to speak it properly. And I could understand "Follow him, but keep out of sight." easy enough. As all of the guards dispersed, it was clear that they were all meant for me, not some upstart gang that didn't know better. But the best part about this was, that I was both not trying to hide, too much. And, that I had droids with sensors built in to them. And not just cheap sensors either.

  My droids tracking them easy enough when they tried to follow on rooftops and high vantage points got the message across quick enough, and they were unable to follow me in stealth either. So they stuck with an obvious, if a bit rude 'patrol' behind my back. When they started to follow me into my destination, they suddenly jerked to a stop. At least before they followed me into their own home base anyway.

  I was entering into Lulu the Hutt's space. It was an underground garage, converted into a theatre and madhouse party destination. It was also one of the few places to buy super heavy battleship class guns. I needed both heavy and ultraheavy turbolasers. These blasters could be the size of a corvette or larger. And, I wanted them on my lucrehulks. They had nothing but space, and they were easy to armor. In the future they could go toe to toe with a imperial star destroyer and walk away with little more than a limp. But if I loaded them up with ultraheavy turbolasers? There were few ships that could compare. Though It still wouldn't be able to take a star destroyer down by itself, it would be able to easily take a bite out of one, and make them reevaluate having that conversation in that back alley over there.

  Don't get me wrong, they would still do it, but under protest to their commander. Now, Lulu, would not be able to fulfill my request. You see Lulu, was not actually a Hutt, she was a Muun. But she was adopted by a Hutt, one Grafasa the Hutt. When Grafasa lost her child to a group of pirates who had tried and failed to capture it to ransom back to Grafasa, she went apoplectic in rage. When a Hutt was raising a child was one of the few time that you did not want to mess with a Hutt, they would not back down. So she murdered them, their families, and their neighbors. But when she was raiding the final base of what was at the time a fairly large pirate gang, she found Lulu in a cage. She was supposed to be ransomed as well, but they were pretty inept for a pirate gang and killed of her parents.

  The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  So the pirates figured that they would raise her and use her as a tool to take over the business when she was older, maybe use her in other ways too. But that didn't end so well for them. Instead Grafasa had asked the child how she wanted them killed. Lulu stated she did not, no they wished she did. No, they were still alive, submerged in bacta, and continuously tortured. At first Grafasa was appalled at how soft the child was, but when she heard how she actually wanted to deal with them she fell in love with this child's deep black Hutt heart. So Grafasa adopted the child.

  While it was not surprising for Hutts to raise children of other species as if they were their own, it was rare for them to truly adopt. Other races were just not compatible, Hutts were some of the smartest species in the universe, with those that were could be counted on Hutt four fingered hands. But even if they were as intelligent they also rarely lasted near as long. At best most races could be considered long lived pets, if that. With Hutts being able to live 2-3 millenniums, though rarely that long, even Nute's 300 potential years, though unlikely with all his stress, was literally nothing. Of course, Hutts rarely lived that long. Their long life of overindulgence saw to that. A Hutt wasn't respected in their society unless they were fat and unhealthy with indulgence and excess.

  But Muun were different. They could live for 700 years, which coincided with the average modern lifespan of a Hutt. Granted, that was still them dying of a heart attack middle aged, but still. So Grafasa adopted her and made her a Hutt. None of the other Hutts were going to mess with a grieving Hutt mother so they didn't make a big stink about it, and those that did, well, they aren't alive to tell their side. And in Hutt society a dead argument is none at all. It helps that none of the major players were too surprised, it isn't the first time that a grieving Hutt mother had done the same thing, but it was a rarety throughout history. Mostly for how rare it was for a Hutt to lose a child.

  The fact that it was many of those same detractors that had been the ones to allow such an event to happen in the first place helped things along probably. As one of the rules of Hutt society was not to get in the way of Hutt mothers, just as it was that Hutt mothers should step back from their duties. Not much mind you, but enough that they didn't make waves and allow their child to be a tempting target. Grafasa obeyed the rules at the time, not that you would find them written, the other Hutts had not. They are dead, she is not, history proves who is right.

  So I was meeting Lulu hoping to get to Grafasa. If Lulu was able to broker such a deal she would rise in her mother's circle, something she hadn't had the opportunity to do in at least 100 years. Of course, she might become an outcast as well, having brokered a deal that was beyond her without thinking of the ramifications. But I doubted that it would come to that. I would be making many deals with many Hutts in my time here. And if Grafasa couldn't see the writing on the wall she would be taken over by her competitors. If lulu was still in the picture at that time would be inconsequential, I just needed those blasters, not to worry about one ancient Muun girl. Seriously, at 300 she was already older than I would ever be.

  I walked into the ongoing rave party. As a Niemidian I could see the graffiti stuck to the walls that would otherwise make the place look drab and unassuming. Instead it was directions on where to get the best spice, which was constantly covered over. Or where to get the best prostitutes, or slave girls, and guys... Even a species directory. Rather than some kind of art piece it was more like yellow pages for thugs. This almost made me physically laugh. i quickly spotted Lulu and her entourage. She was on a surplus hoverdeck that looked like it came off the senate floor.

  I spotted the way up in a little floating platform, and walked over. It was easy to bully the slave boy/thug out of the way with my droids. I manhandled him but didn't actually hurt him or leave bruises. I knew that Lulu would take it as even more of an insult, but I needed to make a power play here. Lulu was really not someone that could deal with me, and I needed to make that a statement, here on Nar Shaddaa more than anywhere. I could only bring along two droids so I brought one B2 and one droidika. The other two made sure that no one else could get onto the hover disks and interrupt us.

  "Her eminence Lulu the Hutt demands you state who you are to barge in here and interrupt her eminence." Stated a pretty little twilek slave boy at her side. Couldn't be a day older than 18 and already thought himself hot shit for being the bosses favorite of the moment. I was more interested in the slave girl that was at Lulu's side, I could tell the difference between the toy and the actual tool. And the twilek, who looked to be the boy's sister or mother, was definitely a fighter, with her toned figure, and what looked like concealed blades.

  Now, most would think that blades beat blasters, and most would be dead, in the tight confines a blade beats a blaster almost every time. There was only about 3 meters between us, and I had no doubt that Lulu had a shield up around her half. That meant with a good step and thrust the female twilek could have a blade in me. Well, if my droidika didn't can her first. but my droidika already had it's blaster out, they were it's arms. My B2 on the other hand would have to first pop it's blaster out, then make sure it was aimed properly, then fire. This took time, time that I would take to step behind my droidika, but time nonetheless.

  It was only the truly accomplished fighters that used melee weapons in a fight. Even a kid could shoot a blaster, but while a vibroblade could cut even durasteal like butter, it still took skill to fight anything but an unprepared opponent, skill I was sure this twilek had.

  Meanwhile some thug was trying to harass my droids, talking about how he had an appointment with Lulu the Hutt. He didn't get the hint until a B2 tossed him and some people unfortunate enough to be behind him into a pillar and pointed a blaster at him.

  Staring at Lulu I had my B2 that I had programed to be a protical droid translate my Niemidian. "The viceroy states that you have something that he wants. he will have it, but you can not provide it for him." The boy huffed, not waiting for his master to speak. "There is nothing on Nar Shaddaa that Lulu the Hutt cannot acquire. It is only if you could afford the price." The Muun's face twitched and the boy's sister looked at him like an idiot. Clearly, he was not well educated enough if he didn't realize that there was nothing on Nar Shaddaa that a viceroy could not buy, the question was just the quantity.

  "The viceroy requires heavy and ultraheavy turbolasers..." the boy scoffed again, "Lulu the Hutt can easily accommodate your..." "2,000 of them, each," the boy did not look so well, and now Lulu looked at the boy, it was not a nice look. The boys mother also looked at him unapprovingly, mother than, sister would be more annoyed. "And that is just to start." Finished the droid. Yes, while medium turbolasers were the largest still in production in the galaxy at large, and even those were heavily restricted, you could get whatever you needed in Nar Shaddaa. It was clear the Hutts had some form of production, though the make of the turbolasers varied greatly. These turbolasers I had no doubt would very greatly from different manufacturers, which would cause refit times to also very even more.

  But I needed those turbolasers. The republic did not have them, at all. Well, at all except those that blatantly did not follow the rules, such as kuat. Correllia also had several, but they were much closer to one offs for their 'historic cultural fleet' that 'they have had since before the ruusan reformations'. It was all nerf pooduu but they had enough pull in the senate to get away with it, and it meant that they would never face reprisal while the ruusan reformations was in effect. Meanwhile Nute wasn't sure that the replublic judiciary force had a medium turbolaser between them. Instead they would have to beg one of the core worlds to deploy one of their 'precious' ships if there was ever a pirate that could outgun them, hint, there were a lot.

  This is why it was so easy for the Trade Federation to get away with arming their ships, mostly with droid fighters and 'security' droids. because they were facing pirate FRIGATES that were also usually 'cultural artifacts' from before ruusan. Mostly because they weren't built anymore in the greater Republic, but also because there were just SO MANY ** that were produced. Between them and the , it was amazing that there were any other types of ships out there. It was like if toyota built a capital ship, the camry of the capital ships.

  So it was no wonder that some would be pirate king would find a random dreadnaught and refit it, if they were lucky. Or just use the barely functioning thing as is if they were not. Still, the one thing a lucrehulk is not known for is it's speed, which means that it will need to simple turtle a capitol's fire until it can jump to hyperspace, assuming that the pirates don't simply follow them. This is where the and vulture fighters come in. They were used as escorts to take down any remnant pirates that happened across a lucky find and thought they could simply bully the Trade Federation. A worryingly increasing scenario.

  This was why the senate, loath to actually spend money on the rim, allowed the Trade Federation to arm their ships and take care of the problem by it's own initiative. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem, and one of it's biggest reasons was standing in front of him. Lulu, and those like her in Hutt space sold enough weaponry to take down the trade federation, and possibly the core if they focused it all. Luckily for them the Hutts would not, nor would they allow anyone to do so. Any attempt by said pirates, would be quickly destroyed, but the Hutts themselves no less.

  And this was because they could not afford an awake republic, heavens forbid they might actually realize that Hutt controlled space has expanded more in the last 1000 years than it has in the past 5000 before that. More and more, worlds 'willingly' declared themselves a part of the Hutt empire over centuries, because the Hutts had the time, we didn't.

  So I needed these technically illegal blasters. There were also other parts that I needed from Hutt space too, like the wrist canon parts for the B2s as well as several other parts that were illegal to produce, but not really to own, in the Republic. And the senate would not take them away from me once I had them... Well, after I lost the lawsuit, but I had for that...

  ** Wookie page states that they were introduced in 119 bby, but they were in use by Raven and such, which was like 4k years ago. Not to mention the Hammerhead which was also in use at the time. This is likely this particular refit.