A Human and a Twi'Lek Walk Into a Bar...

[Noah Corek]

[member="Ilsa Voll"]

GA Controlled Space
Fondor
Pyre's Last Light

Noah was doing something that seemed harder and harder to these days. Smiling and laughing. He was at the Pyre's Last Light, a bar visited mainly by Pyre contractors but was open to all. Civilians, Galactic Alliance Marine Corp, Army and Navy Personnel and even off world visitors, even some dignitaries and politicians had visited the bar. Along the walls there were tons of mementos from famous Pyre battles. Flags captured from Fringe, One Sith and Confederation units from all manners of battles, display cases with various famous weapons and armor: Mk I Bolters, Mk II Bolters, Mk II/S and Mk II/H Battle Armors and various other pieces of protection or death dealing. High above all the patrons head hung two massive models of the Star Dreadnoughts the Protectorate boasted in its heyday. The Leviathan and The Spirit of Druckenwell

And in the middle of it sat Colonel Noah Corek, currently swapping stories with a few Galactic Alliance Marines and their commanding officer, one 1st Lieutenant Lewis Puller, who for some reason had the weird nickname of Chesty, though no-one, even his subordinates knew why.

 

[Ilsa Voll]

"Mehr Bier!"

In the far corner sat a gaggle of individuals around one of the many tables of the bar. Of the group, many were human, but four female Twi'leks were clearly evident. Most of the mugs of beer on the table were empty, made evident by the call for more from one of the humans. A few wore civilian clothes, namely one or two of the Twi'leks who sported comfortable clothing. The rest of the group wore a clearly military uniform, though one very few would recognize. A gray-green in tone, it sported little ornamentation outside of rank pins, name strips, and a silvered pin over the left breast of each tunic.

For Sergeant Ilsa Voll, the little get together was a respite from the galaxy as it stood today. It also showed something many never expected to see outside of their home system: The Eisenwelten military.

Voll had been attached to the old Omega Protectorate as an experiment. Part ambassador, part mercenary, and part liaison, she had filed all her reports to her leadership as ordered. The end result was an interest in joining the Protectorate, something that fell through when the faction dissolved and fractured. Now, her orders had changed and Eisenwelt now aggressively sought out the galaxy. More sections of the military had been dispatched to various parts of the galaxy to find allies and friends. At best, they sought to build lasting ties. At worst, to determine significant threats. For Voll, the Galactic Alliance was her assignment and the assignment of the rest of the group at the table. Most were noncommissioned officers or enlisted, much like herself and her crew. Others holding officer ranks had been assigned in other areas to mingle and attach themselves to higher echelons. Many aspects of the Eisenwelt military were apparent, from the armored corps represented by Voll and her crew to the shock troops represented by the majority of the others at the table. Even the quasi-mysterious Hunters and the Eisenwelt Navy were sent out, though generally only officers and neither were at the table with them.

The waitress deposited another few trays filled with full beer mugs on the table and disappeared as the soldiers cheered the newly arrived refreshment. Things quickly became noisier as the group chatted and continued on with their antics. One of the shock trooper sergeants, evident by the crossed lightning bolt and rifle pin on his left breast, tossed a playful insult to Voll and her girls. Voll's response was to fling one of the left over dinner rolls at the man's head, which missed and spun off into the bar to the roaring laughs of the table's occupants. Grinning, she picked up another roll and bounced it in her hand a moment before tossing it to her gunner.

"Strobel," was Voll's only comment.

The other young Twi'lek nodded barely once before the roll disappeared, flung through the air and hitting the infantryman right between the eyes before bouncing off and away. The table quieted down a brief second before erupting into even louder laughter as Strobel's victim wiped butter residue from his forehead, laughing. Voll tossed an unheard, but playful insult at the man in all the noise which only served the send the table into louder merrymaking. In the midst of it all, an empty mug shot up from one of their number and held itself in the air.

"Mehr Bier!"

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Ilsa Voll"]

Noah chuckled when Chesty finished telling him a story about how he had single-handedly charged a enemy E-Web nest and killed a dozen bucket-heads while he was fighting a skirmish against the First Order. When one of the Pyre contractors, a Master Sergeant, looked to his Colonel and spoke up.

"Hey Colonel? Why don't you tell us a battle story huh? You've never talked about your time in the Republic SFD." T​he contractor said. He wasn't prying just very curious. He had heard the rumors about Corek, how he had ran black ops against the Empire back in the days of the Republic and Empire being the two factions vying for control of the inner rim.

"Yeah, I even heard a rumor you were part of Phantom squad." Said a Lance Corporal from the Alliance Marine Corp. Of course there was always rumors about Corek from the day he joined the Pyre.

Noah chuckled and looked at them. "Alright I got a story for you." N​oah said before getting a serious face.

"​About thirteen years ago fifty Tier One operators from three of the Republic's Tier One SOF units, the Republic Army Special Forces Division, the Republic Marine Raiders and the Republic Naval Special Warfare Unit, were sent to a vcity on Saleucami to help a local rebellion against a Imperial-backed militia that was vying for control of the region. I was apart of a ten man team that the SFD had contributed. We came expecting a small militia force of around company sized. A hundred and fifty unarmored and lightly armed militiamen. Our intel was of course wrong. We came face to face with about five-hundred Imperial Troopers with the best armor and weapons the Empire could give along with some artillery support in the form of mortars. We realized that keeping them at a distance was impossible so we allow them to enter the village and get bogged down in house to house fighting. We would set traps, hit and run and generally make it hard for the Imps. We did this for three days and we made the Imps pay the price in blood. We killed about four hundred of theirs but it cost us as well. At the end of the third day only ten of us were left. We made a pact, no matter what the Imps weren't taking any of us alive. Well by this time the Imps got smart and began to smash the city with shell after shell for a good six hours before the last hundred of them began to move in. After the shelling there were seven of us left and we fought with everything we had left. Honestly I can't tell you what happened. None of us can. All of it is a blur. The last thing any of us remember is taking up our own spots all over the city and then most of us woke up in pools of blood surrounded by Imp corpses. Command gave us each a Medal of Honor, a Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross and swept the incident under the rug."

N​oah finished and looked up to the shocked faces of his drinking companions and was a bit surprised when Chesty stood up and raised his glass.

"​To the most badass person in this bar!"

 

[Ilsa Voll]

The beer flowed and flowed, resulting in reddened noses and more laughter than was probably necessary. It also resulted in full bladders, something that was slowly becoming evident as one of the humans, the hulking Staff Sergeant Papke, rose up from the table. Excusing himself in his native language to his friends, he slipped from the table and headed towards the restrooms.

The shock trooper meandered his way past a few tables and followed the signs as best he could. Unfortunately, Basic wasn't a language he could speak well at all and between somewhat bleary eyes and unfamiliarity with the galaxy's common language, his search was becoming fairly difficult.

He rounded the bar and passed a table of toasting men, most of which looked like they belonged to some sort of military or mercenary unit. Papke paused for a moment, trying to gather his bearings briefly. The signs here looked the same as the ones he was following, but after a second or two to piece the foreign language together, he realized he'd taken the wrong direction. Shrugging, the soldier turned to go back the way he came... and nearly smacked face first into a waitress carrying a tray full of drinks.

Dodging successfully despite his fairly inebriated state, he was pleased he had not run over the serving girl. Unfortunately, the direction he'd dodged in put him in a direct path with a middle aged, grumpy-looking man holding a glass high over the table he'd just passed a second before. In that brief moment, Papke learned once again that beer and balance generally do not mix...

And collided with the older man head on with a resounding thud that sent his friends and Sergeant Voll wondering what in the galaxy Papke managed to botch up this time.

[member="Noah Corek"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Ilsa Voll"]

As soon as Noah saw the Eiswenwelt shock trooper collide with Chesty and spill his drink he knew what would happen. Standing up Noah walked over to the bar and asked for a shot of the strongest thing they had and also for one of his revolvers. The bartender looked skeptically at him when he asked for his revolver. In the Last Light all weapons were confiscated on the way in for the fear of having a bunch of drunken mercenaries in a bar and a fight ensuing where someone ended up dead and the rest court martialed or worse. Nevertheless the bartender shrugged, knowing the Colonel to be a level-headed man and wouldn't shoot anybody.

Taking the drink and downing it Noah turned around to the find the bar had descended into chaos with GA Marines jumping all over the place hitting both Pyre contractors, who had a tense relationship with the Marines anyways both of them seeing themselves as the best fighting force in the galaxy, and the Eisenwelt soldiers. Sighing Noah asked for another shot and turned back around, waiting for it to get completely out of control for him to intervene to stop them for their own good, sometimes it was good them to let off a little steam.