Moon Bandits

The Moon Bandits
General Information
Status	Destroyed
Leader	Friar Blues
2IC	Tal'ord
Historical Information
Founder	Friar Blues
Founded	Circa Year -1
Dissolved	Year 0 Day 218
Political Information
Affiliation	Bounty Hunter Alliance
Industry	Pirate Outfit

The Moon Bandits, also known as Blues' Bandits, were a pirate clan that once threatened the space-lanes. Notable gang members of this organization included the legendary Friar Blues and his loyal companion Tal'ord the Wookiee. After early successes against upstart groups such as the Raptor Pirates, the clan was beaten back by the efforts of Davpa Bolom's Bounty Hunters Alliance. Following their defeat, the remnants of the organization were later annexed by the Hunters Alliance as a squadron and rechristened the Screaming Banshees. The core personnel eventually joined Owan D'arc's Centrepoint Space Station and, after several years, departed to establish the long-lived Juganoth Mining Corporation.

History

Early Years

In the inky twilight where smugglers roam the galaxy, beyond the reach of Imperial law, one pirate clan briefly existed circa Year -1. Calling themselves the Moon Bandits, these brigands were the jackals of the shipping lanes, and they plundered any space caravans which attracted their short-attention spans.

The Moon Bandits were captained by Friar Blues — a one-legged Corellian pirate with an insatiable thirst for Lum and a certain rough-edged charm. In addition to his blue-tinted spectacles, gnarled crutch, and pirate argot, Blues enhanced his loutish appearance with a talkative Chandrilan Bulabird ever-perched on his shoulder. His second-in-command was Tal'ord the Wookiee, an unusually short-tempered member of an already short-tempered species. He lacked two fingers on his right paw due to an unfortunate incident involving a razor-teethed cookie jar. This Wookiee had all the usual virtues of a space pirate: He was deceitful and disloyal, gloomy and greedy. Although he didn't care much for the company of perfumed humans, the eight-fingered Wookiee could be relied upon to cover Cap'n Blues with a blaster rifle and to take care of any back-shooters.

Raptor Feud

For a while, Blues' Bandits briefly dominated the space lanes, but another outfit dared to challenge them. Led by former officers of the Rebel Alliance High Command, the Raptor Pirates sought circa Year -1 Day 300 to make a name for themselves by muscling into the Moon Bandits' territory. Alarmed by their incursions, Cap'n Blues sprang into action to counter the threat. At the Sil Lum Cantina on Cloud City, Blues hired a Trandoshan renegade named Kefeak to obtain detailed information on the Raptor Pirates' hidden fortress. Rumors indicated it was an abandoned space station somewhere in the Outer Rim. Kefeak obtained vital intel about the base, the presence of Imperial or Rebel patrols in that area, and other details about nearby plundered caravans with specifics on the stolen cargo.

Using the information provided by Kefeak, Blues was able to pinpoint the exact location of the Raptor base and to determine they were low on supplies. Via backroom negotiations, Blues made clandestine alliances with other nefarious organizations, including giggle-spice dealers and Ewok mercenaries. (Blues even reached out to more hardened criminals such as ship insurance salesmen and bank loan officers.) Together, this unstable coalition attacked the hidden fortress on the Rim and countervailed against the upstart Raptors. Beaten back, the Raptors lost their chief strategist Dane within two months, and they grudgingly yielded to the Bandits' supremacy.

Screaming Banshees

Times changed with the ascension of Bounty Hunter Alliance, an ancient institution that regulated the bounty-hunting trade. Commanded by the Wookiee battlemaster Davpa Bolom, its members abided by the Bounty Hunters' Creed, the unwritten rules of their unique vocation. Circa Year -1 Day 28, Bolom's Hunters Alliance had become one of the most dangerous regimes in the galaxy, rivaling only the Empire, the Rebellion and Black Sun. Their hunters ravaged smaller crime organizations like a Mustafaran lava-fire.

Realizing they were outmatched, Blues' Bandits surrendered their autonomy and, on Year 0 Day 218, they became the Screaming Banshees, a Bounty Hunter squadron even fiercer than the scum they preyed upon each week. It was then that the Banshees and the ultra-powerful organization know as the Black Sun crime syndicate fell at odds. The exact cause of their dispute is unknown, but a feud raged with both sides bitterly hating each other. Nowhere was this more evident than between Cap'n Blues and Dark Princess Gabriella Storm, the ruler of the Black Sun. Princess Storm reportedly delighted in tasking spies with infiltrating Blues' ranks and then hearing about their grisly fates. In one instance, she sent a high-ranking undercover Imperial his way. By the end of the night, Blues killed the man when he discovered he was a Detective of Criminal Affairs for the Corellian Sector. At the height of this feud, an unfortunate accident befell Friar Blues and forced him to retire the Screaming Banshees. Though it had been rumored his Lum addiction had finally consumed him, there were whispers that he was plotting a new bold venture.

These rumors proved true when Tal'ord the Wookiee, his longtime comrade since the Bandit days, joined the grizzled captain at Owan D'arc's Centrepoint Space Station. Blues was in charge of station security, and Tal'ord again served as his second-in-command. Unfortunately, the Wookiee's reputation across several star-systems as a trigger-happy gunman and Blues' own hair-trigger temper proved to be ill-suited for Centrepoint's respectable corporate image. The duo became fed up with adhering to Centrepoint's code of conduct and strict rules of neutrality. They broke off to seek their fortune and glory elsewhere. Always faithful, the rest of Friar's security contingent followed them and crewed Blues' flagship, The Rumblejug. Together, they established the Juganoth Mining Corporation. The company's title was jokingly named after the infamous Juganoth Prison where Friar and his shipmates had been briefly incarcerated. Consequently, during the company's formative years, the original employees referred to themselves as 'Noths.

Holographics

• (Year 0)

See also

• Night Thieves
• JUGANOTH Mining Corporation
• Kengou Doragon