The Iziz Connection

Posted on Wed Feb 19th, 2020 @ 2:34pm by Kalen "Rex" Vickers & Amare & Theon & G2-O7

4,193 words; about a 21 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Red Raptor, at hyperspace
Timeline: Week Four (After Naboo, Sleheyron and Coruscant)

Rex Vickers was famished.

It was a realisation that had been two-and-a-half hours in the making, but it was one he was confident of, nonetheless. Since using the 'fresher, getting himself dressed in his freshly-cleaned sleepwear - laundering being one of the welcome tasks that the Red Raptor's refurbished G2 unit took to with a gusto that put Brick's to shame - and trying his rank best to fall into blissful unconsciousness for the past couple of hours, he decided that his restlessness was to blame for his failure to sleep.

Historically, the Tatooine native had never really struggled to get to sleep. For years, he had prided himself on his remarkable ability to snooze in any port, locale or ship; Rex Vickers' conscience and life was so pure and easy, there was nothing haunting him to keep him awake. That was a blatant lie, of course, one that even the most meagre space wizard would see through, but it was a lie he chose to regularly believe. It was a lie that had got him through the shakedowns from the goons in Mos Entha, had kept him going through the disastrous Repatriation Campaigns of the GalactaWerks Marines, and had helped him drown out the incessant miseries of Nar Shaddaa. But, for some reason, it was a lie that just would not get him through tonight, as it had not for many of the nights in the standard month he had lived aboard the Red Raptor.

Rex found it easier, and more sensible, to not dwell on it too much. His jaunt on Naboo with Mentis had gifted him a few bonus winks, admittedly, but the Raptor was still no Janna. And it did not have the hold of cargo he now owed a substantial portion of his local cartel on the Smuggler's Moon.

He put the thought to one side, along with his collection of other sidelined thoughts, and stepped out of his cabin and towards the galley/recreation room area of the old freighter. As was often his way, the wily Human popped his head out cautiously first, and was quickly satisfied that there was no one else living to keep him company. With a quick glance backwards towards the cockpit, he surmised that at least of the ship's self-declared owners was likely there, unless G2 was managing the autopilot. This crew frequently seemed happy to be at hyperspace, free from the oversights of governments and groups. It was a mentality Rex actually appreciated, even if he was still struggling to identify them.

With his ear twitching at the sound of small Jawa feet scuttling within the darker depths of the ship, he realised others were not finding it quite so difficult to settle in. He paused briefly as he passed the room Mentis was in, as if punctuating that thought further, but he did not stop to knock on the door, and instead found his way into the rec room, still believing he was alone.

As Rex reached the kitchenette, avaricious eyes scanned the surfaces and trays, but he was soon diving into the cupboards and other fixtures in an effort to seek out some satisfying, sleep-inducing morsel. Without even a minute passing, he had managed to pilfer supplies from three distinct sections, each unique and obvious in the way they had been organised, leaving no confusion as to the original purchasers of the foodstuffs.

Just as the occasional smuggler made a mental note to make a token effort to replenish the ill-gotten goods, layers of food precariously balanced on either arm, he almost leapt up in fright when he turned back to face the table in the corner of the galley. A small and unbecoming yelp definitely escaped his mouth, but he artfully and remarkably managed to avoid losing his after-hours illicit feast.

"I didn't see you there!" Rex managed between breaths, eyes still wide in alarm, nodding towards the Nautolan he was certain had apparated magically in the brief instance his back was turned.

Good, Amare thought as she leaned over the dejarik table from her cozy curved corner lounge seat, dressed in her olive green outfit she wore at Mustafar and Sleheyron. A black obsidian smoking pipe was held easily in her right hand betwixt her index and middle fingers. It was an alien shape that was as thin as a cigarillo and a bit longer in overall length, curled into a tight spiral at the end which opened to a small cup-shaped chamber where a thimble-sized bit of exotic herbs fit for a natural mystic was being affixed. Overall, the pipe almost resembled the charred tail of an infant mulissiki.

"Sometimes I wonder which is worse..." Amare softly remarked as she leaned back with her pipe and crossed her legs and arms as she gazed at Rex's new pilfered bounty of munchies, "...the power of the dark side of the Force..." she added as she pressed her index finger and created a tiny spark to gently ignite the crumbled herbs in the pipe chamber, slightly burning her fingerpad in the process, though the pain did not faze her much beyond a slight shake of her hand to fan the heat from her finger, "...or the temptation of giving in to our most base desires. Gluttony does not suit a human as handsome as you."

She took a pondering, almost meditative drag on the pipe from its gold-plated mouthpiece, its black bark texture reflecting none of the dim low-power lighting in the lounge. She allowed herself a brief and hushed moan of relief to escape her lips as she slowly exhaled a puff of smoke that contained short-lived twinkling blue-green particles no larger than specks of dust. Amare could already feel some of the pain in her body start to ease off as a pair of errant tears streamed down from her eyes, though she gave no glaring indication of sorrow in her relaxed tone or demeanour.

Rex eyed the woman for a moment. Although he was a man quick to make friends, he was a wary creature, prone to suspicion and anxiety as means to ensure his self-preservation. His earliest exposure to the young Nautolan had left him understandably cautious around her, although she had made some effort to foster some civility between them. Very occasionally, he was certain he glimpsed past the dark exterior of leathers, sorcery and sadism to catch sight of a well-meaning girl within, enthusiastic and infinitely invested in the people she felt loyalty towards. But it was just that: very occasionally. She would quickly rectify the lapse in fear through a well-placed barb, or even an unnecessary gesture with the Force.

It did not fill Rex with confidence.

"Nor does huffin' puff suit a young lady as pretty as you," he said, almost forgetting with whom he was speaking, a fraction of his usual casual persona slipping through, which he immediately inwardly cursed. It had been an automatic reaction. Rex did, however, stop himself from carrying on: Or whatever bad voodoo that Thane has you huffin', too! If he had a hand free, he probably would have rubbed his throat in anticipation.

The fledgling Sith apprentice could not help but allow herself a delighted chuckle which was accompanied by a few rough coughs; the universal sign of virgin lungs in the pastime of smoking. "Purely--*cough*--medicinal," Amare barely managed to retort. "'Morkho's Moss' they call it. Please, join me for a spell. I wouldn't mind sharing that bag of larfha chips you've got there."

Rex fought off the immediate urge to decline the offer, secrete his stolen goods, and retreat to his room. However, something about the lighter tone Amare was speaking in actually left him easing a little. Not enough for him to forget about one very memorable, breath-taking encounter he had had with Amare early on, admittedly, but enough for him to feel he was not at immediate risk. Unless he turned her down, perhaps.

"Sure," he said with an easy shrug, and he ambled over to the Nautolan, a part of him almost neglecting to recall she was a magic-wielding death dealer. If he had given Mentis the time of day, then why not this young woman, after all. Perhaps she had an Axion all of her own, Rex briefly considered, and his mind briefly touched on the comment he had made to the Rattataki about the similar-but-opposite paths the two Force warriors seemed to be, both divergent and converging.

He was too tired for such heavy thinking, though. And too hungry.

"So where'd you get it?" The Human asked, tearing open the larfha chip bag after claiming a seat, and offering one of the crispy morsels to Amare.

"The pipe was a prize I earned from a...'task' I completed on Lorrd several months ago. It was a parting gift as an honourary member of House Renliss," Amare explained in fond reminiscing, her prideful smile revealing her nostalgic whimsy. "I see the recognition of that name on your face. Believe me, I've witnessed terrible things this past year, Mister Rex..." She took another short drag of the pipe and added, "...faced monsters of all sizes, haunted by restless spirits at every turn, even died for several seconds in an ancient pool of enchanted blood before a strange power restored me to life with pain that I still feel to this day. But I swear to you none of that compares to the terror of facing an Ovissian bounty huntress pointing a blaster cannon at you. I can be merciful, even a good friend, but the women of Renliss have hunted bold freelancing men like you for over a thousand years. If you ever earn their mark, my advice is this: pray...pray very hard to what or whomever it is you believe in and make a living will for someone you care about. There's no starship fast enough; no amount of hired protection that will save you from them. If they offer you a chance to surrender--which is rare--take it. Not even I would gamble on fighting them."

She allowed herself one more puff from the pipe before silently offering it to Rex for a sample hit of the fragrant herb with one hand whilst wiping tears from her eyes with the other hand; tears that appeared very faintly bio-luminescent in a colour close to the tiny embers seen mixed in her exhaled smoke.

Rex took no time in considering the pipe, and very quickly claimed the smooth, black pipe, turning it over quickly in his hands to inspect it. "Oh, if I had a cred for every time this Hutt there, or that gangster there said their particular brand o' bounty hunter was the best," he huffed with amusement, before bringing the pipe to his lips and taking a long drag. Almost immediately after taking it down - and he undoubtedly took more than was sensible - he coughed up ball of wispy smoke identical in colour to Amare's strained tears. "That's a cheeky little number!" He managed in a higher-than-normal voice, face strained as he waved the smoke away, passing the pipe back to Amare and laughing quickly at their shared struggle. Just as quickly as the smoke had dissipated, so too had his discomfort with the Sith apprentice, it seemed.

There is a person in there, after all.

A familiar two tone communications chime rang out across the ship causing the conversing pair to both look about, primed to the distinctive chime but neither quite sure where to expect the call to be answered as it was not commonplace for the Raptor to receive an incoming call. Before either could discuss their confusion with the other, the starboard-side doorway slid open and a jabbering G2-O7 rolled in.

Its round red and blue sensors rolled about and clocked Rex and Amare. Seemingly pleased it had found somebody, it then directed some binary language their way that Rex interpreted loosely as something about routing a signal. G2 then shot over and interfaced with the port on the dejarik table, which had served as a makeshift display many a time before the installation of the main terminal in strategy room. The lights dimmed moderately and the basic holoprojector cast the shimmery-blue full body image of a tall, broad-shouldered Human. His sudden appearance would have been more imposing had he not been a miniaturised version of himself and had he been projected the correct way around to be facing the pair seated at the table.

This must have caused a similar disorientation on his end as the projected man took a couple of confused looks around before tapping a button, which rotated his form around 180 degrees. Now more visible, they could see the man wore a sturdy leather bodysuit which was partially plated to protect his chest. The tarnished metal was well-worn, suggesting the garb was not new and, given the form-fitting design, it implied the man himself had been in his fair share of scrapes. His wide face looked almost as sturdy as his attire, but not nearly as rugged; his short spiked back hair did not give the impression of some rough mercenary and his green eyes still had a youthfulness to them as they glared at the two from under a heavy brow.

"I am certain my contact details are correct so this must be the Red Raptor, despite what your transponder codes are beaming out," stated the man, crossing his arms as he did so, "So, where are they then; ex-Reborn Knights Thane and Bomoor?"

Rex looked at the man dumbfounded, eyes wide and body almost unmoving from his sitting position. One hand began to dare to dip towards the larfha chips again as he considered what to say. As the muscled man shifted his weight and his arms, Rex did not fail to spot the shining cylindrical object dangling from his waist, only partially obscured as it was by the tell-tale blue shimmer of a long-distance holographic communication.

"Another good friend of yours?" He whispered under his breath to Amare, having leaned slightly closer to the Nautolan. A lifetime of barely even glimpsing a lightsaber, and Rex had now seen about a dozen in a month. For a moment, he felt out, before sense returned and he recalled his very sensible abject fear. He popped a larfha chip into his mouth and crunched.

Amare shifted in her seat and leaned forward a bit to gaze down at the shimmering image of the Human Jedi, with an imposing build and demeanour that reminded her of her mother's old feline hulking master, Rynseh.

"Hardly," she muttered to Rex before quickly adding in a businesslike tone with an easy-going smile to Jedi, "If you're referring to the previous owners of this fine ship, well..." she eased back a little and brought the pipe close to her blue lips, "...can't say I knew them well," she lied with a believable veil of fake sincerity garnished with her budding con-artist's flair. "This is my ship now. Legitimate salvage, of course. My partner here," she said with a hand gently squeezing Rex's shoulder, "and I are not pirates. But lucky for you, I might happen to know where your Jedi brats are now...for the right price."

At first, Rex was not sure what sort of game Amare was playing, but he was otherwise quick on the uptake. Whilst he made another mental note of the various surprises the blue-skinned woman had an offer, he had used such ploys of his own in the past. The Cartel smuggler did not especially like playing Jedi and their various ilk, but he was, admittedly, buoyed by having his own Sith witch on his side. He offered a cocksure grin to the armoured man, and casually threw another chip into his mouth, crunching antisocially loudly.

The holographic Human's eyes could be seen darting between the pair, in spite of the low-resolution projection, "Legitimate salvage?" he queried, with an unconvinced tone, "Has that line ever worked on anyone?"

He did not seem truly interested in the answer as he uncrossed his arms and began tapping at the unseen controls before him, "Listen, I don't have time to mess around here. You are with the former Jedi or have some knowledge of them. Either way, I am sure you know what trouble it would bring down on you if I released the true credentials of your ship there, which I can do right now if you don't start co-operating with me. With all the heat on the Red Raptor right now, there's no way you'll get your codes changed again before someone intercepts you."

He held a finger, presumably poised over a button for dramatic effect, before adding, "Your choice."

It was now Rex's turn to shift in his seat. This was his game, and he was struggling to not jump in and start playing it, the confidence of yesteryear and his life's vocation threatening to throw caution to the wind and make his decisions for him. "That's an interesting gambit, my sculpted friend," he said before he could stop himself, waggling a finger from his packet-free hand at the Jedi. Rex then jumped up with surprising gusto to face the figure more appropriately, crumbs tumbling from his loose tunic to the metal floor. "But I'm gonna have to call your bluff. Let's say your rogue laser monks are aboard this bucket but you go ahead and call in the seccers... whaddya think'll happen then, huh? I'm sure they'd be mighty grateful."

Without giving the unknown warrior a chance to say anything extra, Rex leaned forward on the table and pushed his face up close to the blue haze of the holographic display - which probably ruined his appearance on the other side of the deep-space transmission. "So, how's about you tell us who you are, what you're after, and maybe we'll think about spilling the dentas... Your choice."

G2's luminous eye spun between the holographic Human and his two shipmates. Programmed as he was to be infinitely loyal to the masters of the Red Raptor, he was considering alerting Masters Thane and Bomoor to the request by this unknown individual; they were the first and principal commanders of the vessel, having some degree of dominance over the two conversing, but he also felt compelled to not interfere with their peculiar deception. As such, he remained silent, and continued waging his internal droid-morality war, only uttering a low warble of discontent, designed to be just loud enough to encourage Mistress Zaracoda to make the decision for him.

The unknown man's dangling finger became more of a fist, but still remained suspended in the air, "I don't have to tell you anything. I contacted this ship to make a proposal to Thane and Bomoor," he stressed the names through gritted teeth, "A proposal that I know they will want to hear out. But if you just want to play the stubborn fool..."

Amare held up a hand to halt the human and feign defeat, "Okay, you win, Master Jedi," she said with a sigh and a shake of head. She began a stream-of-thought half-truth explanation, and tried to put a mild sense of fear and nervousness into her words, "You got us. Look, we want no trouble. We were never told how hot this ship was, but we got it cheap, and I'm starting to feel like an idiot for taking their offer. Listen, the truth is I have a direct line to them, but they're not on this ship anymore. I've done them some favours and helped them lay low in exchange for a deep discount on the ship. Now, I can promise to pass your message to them if you just lay off the trigger there, but it's going to take a little time. They seemed a bit paranoid last time I saw them, especially the Human. Handsome fellow for a pink-skin, but had a crazy look in his eyes. I don't suppose that has something to do with you perhaps?"

The man on the hologram instinctively drew his arm back and concealed the lightsaber hilt but he did not immediately return to hovering over the button, "I don't know who you two are, but I think you have more of a connection to the former Jedi than you suggest," he spoke more calmly but still held a firm gaze, "Let us not continue this back-and-forth any longer. I will provide a point of contact to your droid here, which you will pass on to Thane and Bomoor along with the following message: 'The offer I made in Iziz still stands. Our true enemy has shown its hand once again.'"

The console made a few confirmatory beeps, and G2 dutifully inserted its scomplink, offering a few rapid warbles of his own once the download was completed. Standing beside it, Rex placed a gentle palm on the droid's dome, only glancing back to Amare briefly before looking back to the other Human. "We'll make sure the messages gets to them," he said, although his voice had lost none of its suspicion, even if it was also now less confrontational. Oddly, it felt good to have taken some affirmative action as a member of the Red Raptor crew. "Uhh... may the Force be with you?"

The man looked to the side slightly and Rex could make out the faintest of smiles, although it was unclear if it was a mocking smile or one of genuine amusement, "Indeed. Indeed," he repeated before the image flickered and faded away as the transmission ended.

A small red velvet pillow cushion was flung directly at where the holo-image was which bounced harmlessly off of G2's dome. This was followed by a short string of muttered Nautila obscenities that didn't translate well in air-spoken languages. "Such arrogance," Amare said calmly in Basic towards where the image was. "I hope one day I will meet this Jedi so that I may have the pleasure of introducing him to how a Sith teaches the value of respect." She set her pipe down on the table.

G2 backed up slightly and emitted a querying warble, having developed enough of a constructed personality once again to be somewhat curious about the man on the transmission and how he had managed to get a priority message onto their currently covert craft.

"I'm as puzzled as you, little guy," Amare said as she drew a dusty black handkerchief from her pocket and knelt down to do a quick bit of polishing on G2's dome. "Sorry about the cushion," she whispered to the droid, "that wasn't meant for you. You're a good little kem-vo, aren't you?"

Kem-vo was one of her made-up code words based on the Nautila tongue, to signal to G2 that it was time to send a backup of his daily memories to her secret archive hidden on the HoloNet before his daily memory-wipe was executed. She grimly recalled that she had said kem-hok to a different droid months earlier to do something far more sinister, but that was a tale for another time, if she ever found it in herself to finish her saga from her days on Lorrd. She swore to do so, that only death would stop her. Her master and Bomoor deserved to know the whole truth, and the closer she came to the end, the more whole she felt inside.

Rex eyed the Nautolan and the G2 unit for a moment. He had noticed the shifting character in the little astromech since he had helped to rebuild it after Korriban. Thane and the Ithorian seemed fairly consistent with their insistence on periodically wiping the droid's memory; despite that apparent commitment, it had continued to develop a personality typical to its class, albeit G2-O7 seemed fairly fearful of even considering the world outside of the Red Raptor. It was still more stable than Brick, mind. Rex could only assume Amare was responsible for G2's growing sentience.

Well, I'll be. He smiled widely at the so-called Sith apprentice as he finished making the connections in his head. "Thane and Bomoor are in that 'vault'. I'd, uhh, rather you were the one that disturbed 'em. If you don't mind." Rex ambled over the assortment of snacks he had prepared a short while before, thinking it sensible to conceal them in his room before the gruesome twosome arrived. His curiosity was piqued, though. He had been to Onderon once himself.

"If I don't return," Amare said to Rex with a grin, "you know where the escape pod is." She concluded with mock, almost cartoonish villainous laughter before her face faded back to a serious deadpan glare as she took her leave of the droid and their Tatooine-native guest.

TBC

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