Starbound

ShoddyProduct

ShoddyProduct

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With the Rancor's Pit behind them, and now further behind than they had been before they'd even arrived on planet, Corre was, understandably, frustrated. She had walked with Verse in a fuming silence, electing to think rather than rant, as the pair of Sith made their way to the landing pads. There was hardly anywhere else that would take kindly to their presence, and if worst came to worst, they could take a ship and figure out how to fly on the fly.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

"Verse, keep an eye out. Anyone who seems... receptive. If we're to follow up on any of this," she said, holding the datapad up and tapping it with a knuckle, "we need to be able to get off-world. Most of these people are criminals, but they are Republic criminals. We may need to manipulate, or strike fear, to get anywhere, but... well. Stay close. Separating would be bad for us."
 
The afternoon spent in the diner had turned out to be a total waste. Which had been predictable, maybe, but it didn't make it any less frustrating. The other mercs were likely off-world by now. The way this day was going, Verse was ready to pull a starship heist. Surely astrogation couldn't be that hard.

"I'll leave the manipulation to you. You think we could charge the senate for our passage fees?" She glanced at Corre, before returning her eyes to the crowd. The colours at the edge of her vision were blurring together a little, which wasn't exactly a great sign.

"Oh. Got a story you want to run? What're you going to tell them about us? So I don't, um." She gestured, tracing a small loop with her hand. "You know, mess it up, again."
 
Corre sucked in a breath, and held it for a moment. "We likely could, yes. Either that, or we have to put ourselves at even more risk, and find... free travel." Immediately, it was clear she was uneasy with this idea. It was all too dangerous, being here. Coruscant was not an ideal place for a Sith, given the ongoing hostilities, and especially not two of them. Verse could handle herself against a few soldiers, but the Jedi temple was right there, and they were essentially surrounded on all sides. If they suddenly became the target of their vitriol, would she be able to...

The Sith shook her head, clearing her mind. "Unsure. We may not need one, given the contract. We're helping the Republic, after all," she said with a wry smile, sarcasm dripping. They both wanted the Republic gone, but it just so happened they had a bigger threat to deal with first. "And don't worry, sister. You've yet to truly ruin anything, and I doubt you will."

She turned her attention to the landing pads, scanning for any pilot who seemed particularly open to negotiations.
 
Tethys's Delaya-class courier, The Mynock, was not a beautiful vessel by any galactic standard. But it had its perks here and there. Twenty-one engines in groupings of three, servo-controlled mountings meant there was no need for maneuvering thrusters, two hyperdrives, shields, two rotating turret cannons, and a concussion missile launcher. All in all, it could take a fighter in open combat and it still had enough room for the passengers to take tea afterward.

But even with all that, well, Tethys never got over how much the damn thing looked like a bug.

Sitting down outside of it on an empty steel crate on the Coruscanti landing pad, she put her feet up on Tipee and started looking over her cargo manifest. Specifically, she was looking over how absolutely empty it was. She had just finished a smuggling run of death-sticks to Coruscant, a simple job and with the war going on a relatively easy slip past customs. The right bribe here and there made everything easy. But easy didn't pay well. After the fuel, repairs, and basic restocking, she had less than a hundred credits 'free cash.'

"Dwoo, woo..."

Tethys sighed, "Stop reading the manifest remotely, Tipee, that's my job." Her high Coruscant accent still slipped out every time she talked. Tethys knew she had it but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't hear it. And if she couldn't hear herself, then she couldn't do shit about it. But Tipee was right, he needed a new motivator and she wasn't sure if fixing the old one again was an option. The last thing she needed was for him to blow out while on a spacecrawl outside The Mynock

In short, she needed a job.
 
There. Sitting on a box, feet propped atop a droid, was a pilot. One who look sufficiently downtrodden for their needs. Corre tapped Verse on the shoulder, then began walking without a word. The unspoken signal was enough, she knew she'd follow. As she weaved through the crowd, she took care to hide her lightsaber beneath her poncho, leaving only her relatively unused blaster visible. It was the most she could do to hide who she was, given colored contacts weren't readily available.

"Hello! Hi, ma'am. My sister and I- well. We're bounty hunters. Just hired by the Grand Chancellor, believe it or not." Very suddenly, all at once, Corre seemed much cheerier than she had a few moments ago. An act, one to put this woman at ease. There was hardly a person here that would willingly help a Sith. "We're in dire need of transport. Don't have a ship of our own, and certainly not a pilot between us. We can offer... what do you think is reasonable, Verse? A third? on completion." On mentioning her companion, Corre turned to her. Her brows raised expectantly, a silent question; do you feel anything from her? If this woman was Force sensitive, and was aware enough to feel them, then this ruse may fall apart just as quickly as it was thrown together.
 
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Verse mumbled, glaring at a spot on the floor near the pilot's feet. Their new friend was clearly force-sensitive; she could tell from the pain in the woman's head--and then the grinder in Verse's own skull that prodding at her was starting up. Wonderful. "So long as you're not a jedi in disguise, or something similarly cheery." Just in case that'd been too subtle, she force-poked Corre in the brain as she said 'jedi,' for a bit of emphasis. Probably wasn't an actual jedi, but it was much harder to work 'force-sensitive' into a natural-sounding sentence.

Lot of force-sensitive pilots on this rustball, it felt like. Which was fine. Force-sensitive was good, probably. Meant faster reaction times. And faster other stuff. Also meant higher price, probably. And they didn't have a lot to offer, at least on the spot. Oh well.
 
There was a time where Tethys, Jedi Knight, could have smelled the essence of the Dark Side from a hundred kilometers away. Nothing could creep up on her, nothing could surprise her. But ever since that day, the day of the massacre, reaching for the Force was like trying to push your fingers through a block of ballistics gel. It could be done, but it was extremely difficult.

So when the two Sith walked up on Tethys, the Jedi Fool felt nothing. Looking up at the first to speak, Tethys sized her up without a response. A bounty hunter? Possible. Tethys met bounty hunters, they came in all shapes and sizes. But the efficient ones came in one of two shapes, hulking and dangerous, or lithe and disarming. If this woman was efficient, the disarming type was probably what she was.

The other was different. Tethys could feel her through the Force as if she had been gently touched. But the touch, no matter how gentle, brushed a raw wound. But it felt raw both ways, like looking in a mirror of pain. But whether or not she was a trained Force User or just someone using it unconsciously, Tethys couldn't tell. Her friend gave away her name, 'Verse,' and Verse had the look of someone who had been through a lot of pain. Angry-looking cybernetics and an attitude, but Tethys couldn't blame her for at least one of those things.

Sighing, Tethys responded without moving off her box or droid, "I don't have enough money to wait for some promised reward down the road. However, perhaps our interests could align. If you are both bounty hunters, then I can offer my ship with the stipulation that, whoever your bounty-hunting target is, I acquire salvage rights on their belongings in addition to the third."
 
Corre smiled. "I think that is an amicable deal." Quietly, without acknowledgement, she took note of the warning from Verse. Force sensitive. She wondered just how many people in the galaxy had a connection to it, aware or not, and how many could feel the pain it was suffering. Corre knew she could, though it was weak and distant. Maybe not quite as distant as the woman before her, but far nonetheless.

Irregardless of the pilots sensitivity to the Force, she offered a hand, much as she had with Jun. "Corre. We're after a high profile target, but I would appreciate if we could get set up aboard your ship, before discussing details. Information, as I am sure you know, is high in value these days."
 
Corre was already doing her thing, which was wonderful, since it meant Verse once again did not have to think about it. Beyond the standard 'pay enough attention to make sure my beloved sister isn't plotting to have me dumped into the cargo bay and out the back door' side of things, of course.

"Since you already know who our employer is, you could try hitting him up for gas money, too. If you like." Verse was already turning towards the ship's entry hatch, as if she expected it to open on its own. "If he's desperate enough to put out requests to any bounty hunter with legs, surely he's generous enough to pay for their rides as well."
 
She took the hand gently, shaking it and responding, "Tethys." Before finally standing up. Gesturing with her hand, the little T1-P3 droid chirped lowly and made its way toward the ramp at the same time as Verse. It opened for the droid, but it may as well have opened just as Verse stepped up to it in expectation of her as well.

Looking Corre up and down, Tethys asked a few questions while she turned to head up the ramp herself, "This is a courier vessel, plenty of room if you have things that need to be brought aboard. Have you any droids or other companions?"

The inside of the vessel was fairly spacious for one of its class. A single large room greeted the trio of women as they entered the vessel, with wooden dividers -bolted to the ground- standing in as 'walls' to add the appearance of 'rooms.' A section to the right had been dedicated to storage and a section to the left designated to 'guest' cots hung from the ceiling. Past that 'hallway' was a large rectangle area with a few chairs and a table set in the corner of it.

It seemed intentionally left bare, with a few racks of weapons and staffs hung about the walls. To Corre and Verse, having both been to the Sith Academy, it looked strangely familiar to a training room. Though it lacked the 'flare' of dangerous implements that the Sith Academy held. Past that, the locked cockpit. Stepping through the hallway and into the central room, Tethys flipped a hand up in the air, "Welcome to The Mynock."
 
The Mynock. An interesting name, to be certain, though the accuracy was uncertain as of yet. Corre surveyed what she could see, almost lazily, and felt that small sense of familiarity budding in the back of her mind. It was spartan, simple and effective, and miss Tethys was clearly at least somewhat familiar with the weapons on her ships hull.

They'd tried, in the academy, to drill into their heads that strength, power, and ruthless efficiency were key. Despite that, Corre had always been very invested in her outward appearance, going so far as to get up earlier than the other apprentices, not to attempt an assassination, but to be sure that any attempted on her would see her at her best. Was it frivolous? Certainly, but she felt confident and strong enough to indulge. As such, while there was something to be said of the minimalist design of the ship, she couldn't help but think of... improvements.

The young Sith wouldn't enact or suggest any of them, mind. She needed to see if it was even worth staying, and for how long they would be. There was every possibility this mission of theirs lasted all of a week before it ended, in success or tragedy. She shook herself from thought to shake her head to Tethys. "No, no companions. We both travel light as well, I just have a single bad I will need to go retrieve before we leave the planet, and it will take only a minute or so."

From her side, Corre lifted the datapad towards the woman. "If you're curious as to what we will be doing, and the total payout, refer to this. Afterwards, I would like to discuss what we will be doing first, and if you have any leads from any other work you may have done recently."
 
Verse trailed in after Corre and the captain, giving the ship a cursory once-over. It seemed, like... Fine. She reached out gently with the Force, prodding and poking at the vessel's interior to check for any Hidden Surprises.

"Hammocks, hm?" She'd never had a chance to try one before now, but she'd always sort of wanted to. And she needed to talk while she was doing this; focusing too hard on it always left her miserable for hours after. "How good are the inertial dampeners?"

And the training room.

"The Jedi say that the Force is a living thing. An organism. Something we're all part of. That's where their philosophy comes from. To them, selfhood is illusory. No point in anger, no truth in ignorance, and when they die--they are merely returning to what they were before. They consider themselves utterly meaningless, insignificant beings, which is how they justify their insipid passivity. This is backwards, apprentice. The Force itself is not a living thing--it is the medium that connects all living things, and indeed all nonliving things, together. To claim otherwise is cowardice. When you reach out and hold that focus in the air and set it to spinning, is it the Force doing that, or is it you, using the Force? When we pump our lungs, is it the air that breathes? If Corre were to push you into a pond and hold you down until you ceased breathing, until your mouth burst open and water forced its way into your lungs, would we say that it was the water that drowned you?"

[...]

"The Code says that the Force will free us--but all that means is that we will free ourselves. Lightning is the first step on that road. If the Force is a conduit for our will, then Lightning is our will overcoming the limitations that conduit imposes on us. It is an outpouring of true passion, more honest and pure than any paltry artist's imitation. Now--pay attention. Engrave this moment in your mind. It helps, I have found, to experience it first hand. Oh, don't look so put upon. This is how my master taught me, too."

She looked away, quickly.

"Oh. And... No. I've got some equipment and clothes and. Stuff. She travels light. I hoard." Well, no; Verse only had, like. Three bags. And the stuff in them was (mostly) useful. To her, at least. "A little."
 
Tethys took the datapad cautiously, surprised to see it and not a bounty tag. Nodding to Verse as Tethys began reading the datapad, she answered the young woman, "Inertial dampeners are fantastic, in space. In atmo? Well, don't hold any.. uncovered..." Tethys's eyes had reached the pertinent information and her conversation trailed off.

Snapping her head up as she finished, Tethys asked flatly, "Are you two kriffing with me? This is a joke, I'm about to be 'punked,' right? I just- what?" Tethys could not believe, could not comprehend, that anyone would willingly attempt this level of utter lunacy. There was having a death wish, then there was this. She wanted to rant, to rave, to declare angrily 'I did not stay with the kriffing Jedi order for decades only to be pulled into the war now!'

But she said nothing of that sort. Instead, she set the datapad down on the central room floor and folded her legs into a meditative cross. Holding her head in her hands, she remarked, "Tipee, help Verse get her things, please. Corre, sit, kriffing, explain this to me. Do you even have an idea of where to start, an idea of who you're thinking about kriffing going up against?!"
 
That had been about the reaction Corre expected. Either that, or Tethys would attempt to kick the pair off the ship, which likely would not have gone well. All things considered, this was likely the best outcome. "Go ahead, Verse. I'll explain to Tethys here."

With a smirk, the young Sith knelt in front of her new pilot, placing her hands on her legs. "I am well aware of what we are going up against. As a matter of fact, Verse and I were fully intending to fight a version of this fight before we had ever heard of the job offered by the Republic." Despite the smile, her tone, and eyes, told of a conviction and determination that was atypical of a bounty hunter.

"If you would rather not take the job, by all means, tell me now. You would, however, be losing out on the most credits you will likely ever see in your lifetime." Corre took a moment to think, considering telling Tethys more of who they were, but thought better of it. "I was born in the fledgling empire, so I have some connections. I had intended to leverage those connections, at least to begin our investigation."
 
Verse glanced between her sister and the pilot, uneasily. Leaving her alone with the pilot in the pilot's own ship didn't sit right with her, but... Well, maybe it was just the memories. Corre could handle herself, assuming the pilot truly didn't know what they were. If she did, well... This would probably turn out to be a trap as well. Which could be fun.

"Come on, then, droid," the Sith force adept muttered. "Let's leave those two to talk economics." She started back towards the hatch.
 
Tethys was many things, some she would admit to, some she would not. Pain-addled, wracked with guilt, and often distracted by her failings were among the things she would admit. But one thing she would not admit because it was entirely unnecessary, was a single simple fact.

Tethys was not stupid.

Their outfits could be excused, and their demeanor as well. Bounty hunters were rough. Connections in the Empire too could be excused, though calling it 'the Empire' even after Exar Kun's death was a little suspect. Finally, admitting to wanting to hunt down, or at least sabotage, the Dark Lord was understandable by itself, if not also a little suicidal.

All of these things together, however, painted Tethys a picture she did not like. However, even after ALL that, Tethys really couldn't say they weren't just bounty hunters. But it did plant a seed, and Tethys didn't like that seed.

"I'm not, against, what this proposes. I am no admirer of the Dark Lord either... But if we are to continue this relationship, I'll require a little bit of honesty from my passengers. Who are you two, really?"

-------

Tippee followed Verse out the back hatch, chirping and whirring as he traveled. If Verse could speak droid, she would understand that he wasn't really 'talking' so much as repeating every curse word he knew in droid language in differing order. But he seemed chipper about it nonetheless!
 
The knowing smile that had been on her face since she sat across from the pilot never left Corre's face, even as Tethys began to put the pieces together, and call her bluff. At least it hadn't entirely been a lie, but the truth would have come out eventually regardless. She thought, for a moment, to proclaim it proudly, but her thoughts hung on what Verse had told her on approach. Whether the pilot knew it or not, she was Force sensitive. That meant there was a possibility she was a former Jedi. Those types of people didn't tend to willingly help Sith, even if their goals happened to align.

At the same time, there were very few answers that would satisfy the older woman. Her mind spun for a moment, and then she began speaking. "I," she began, once more placing a gloved hand against her chest, "was born into nobility in the Sith Empire, as it was recollecting itself after the fall of Exar Kun's death. I have seen my people rise from the depths, only for an outsider to claim the throne. It wasn't long after that I was excised from the Imperial Army, on account of my distaste for Revan." A lie by omission was still a lie, but it wasn't necessary she knew they were bonafide Sith. Not yet, anyways. Certainly, she wouldn't be able to feel Corre's connection to the Force, withered and weak as it was. It was perhaps the only time it had ever been helpful to date.

"Verse, on the other hand, was taken in when she was young. I know little, frankly, as she wishes not to speak of it. I do know, though, that she likes Revan even less than I, and has no quarrel with the Republic." If you care about that. "I hope my answers are satisfactory?"
 
"Who's been teaching you all those curse words, hm?" Verse muttered, allowing her boots to scuff the road as she walked. A speeder would be nice; they'd been walking all bloody day. "Don't suppose your boss has a taxi fund?"
 
Born into Sith nobility, served in the Imperial Army, other one taken when she was young, and both kicked out with a hatred of Revan.

It painted a picture to only confirm Tethys' fears.

Sighing and placing a hand on her forehead, Tethys responded quietly, "Yeah, yeah I understand." Before groaning loudly and standing up with more than a little annoyance. The origin of her annoyance would become overtly obvious almost immediately as Tethys continued speaking, "Alright, where to first? I assume you have some idea of where you two wish to begin your search?"

She was annoyed because she knew they were Sith, and Tethys was still going to go along with them. Moving toward the cockpit and turning her back on the Sith, Tethys made her way to the navicomputer. As she entered the cockpit, her broken lightsaber could be seen on the dash of the pilot's console. In her annoyance and distraction, Tethys didn't seem to remember that's where she left the damn thing.

-------

Tippee seemed surprised that Verse understood him, stopping for a moment before beeping a few more, appropriate, curse words of surprise. Then, as a sort of 'let's not talk about this' beep, the little dish-headed droid comm'd a hover taxi to their location. Tethys would have to deal with the unexpected expense.
 
The groan was indicative. Corre had known it was a risk, but Tethys would, if things went according to plan, learn sooner rather than later. As much as she would love to pull all the strings, keep everyone in the dark as she schemed and planned her way to Revan's doorstep, some amount of trustworthiness was necessary. Lying to Republic citizens would only ensure that, once the truth came out, both herself and Verse would have a target at their backs, larger than the one they already had.

She stood, letting her smile fall away once the pilot had her back to the Sith. At least she had agreed to take them. Now, for the second surprise. "Considering our connections, Verse and I had intended to make contact with a Sith carrier. We carry influence, and so long as we are careful, we should be able to glean some amount of insight from the officers we encounter." She stopped in the door, waiting for the pilots response, allowing a small frown to cross her face as her eyes drifted along the controls of the ship.
 
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