Private Chasing Echoes

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Onderon, Silver Jedi Concord Status: In Atmosphere

After the credits were confirmed transferred, Scar gathered up her very few belongings in her room and had headed out to the marketplace. Roaming around for supplies before she set off, she told that business exec that there'd be no communications between them, so to her, she had all the time in the world. Besides, she chose a lowly bounty hunter to go play fetch, so they should expect a bit of delay. That's what comes expected with someone not super famous for speed, right? Once the supplies were gathered and put onto her old GX1, she made sure the Hauler was ready. Scar wasn't sure when the last time the ship even had maintenance, as before she took command of it, having spent some time on it, she never saw when it went into maintenance or was really worked on by the old owner. So this means the oil was probably low, or gone, but that was of no concern to her. It just had to last until she got to Ithor. Unfortunately for her, it seems her research was wrong, as she thought Ithor was under Silver Jedi control. This meant she had to spend a little extra time in New Imperial space. Usually she wasn't so concerned about the factions, well, except for the Sith, but this time she was doing a particularly sensitive job.

Once system checks were made and the GX1 started up, Scar did the usual for requesting to leave. Landing on Onderon wasn't a particularly busy place, which also meant she could potentially fly under the radar. It was the busy places she didn't like, usually those places have money or you're expected to have a running ship. Onderon could be seen as a vacation or a pit stop, which suited her just fine. In leaving Onderon, she prepared her hyperdrive, inputting the coordinates necessary to traverse the galaxy in whatever manner needed to reach Ithor. She didn't want to be caught in a firefight with this old bus, so she hoped she got to her new ship in record time.

Entrance is permitted to New Imperial Order or Sith Empire members or allies, as I will be within their territory, when I am in their territory. Scar is not affiliated with these organizations. Entrance is permitted to Independent Ship Captains or Bounty Hunters if NIO or Sith enter or if there is a bounty.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Ithor, New Imperial Order Status: Landing

Scar spent a decent amount of time in hyperspace, as her GX1 either had a bad hyperdrive, or it was in desperate need of repairs. Either way, she'd probably sell it for scrap after this. Didn't much matter, as she wouldn't be immediately leaving it. As long as the new ship was ready on Ithor, she would still have to transfer all of her cargo, and hope it wouldn't get randomly inspected. She was just transferring to a new vessel, and had to move her couch, you know? For most of the trip, Scar just tried to relax, she was nervous, having a lot of tension and stress after taking this job. Surprisingly, this was her first 'big' job, usually she just used the name to get low quality bounties, taking the mocking from others that thought Scar was 'getting old' or 'getting tired' of mercenary work. It certainly helped that she started off with some alright armor and good weapons. Playing it safe seemed to work out for her, compared to running in like a bumbling fool like the targets did.

When Scar finally arrived to Ithor, she did all her checks with any system patrols. She didn't have any illegal contraband, except possibly aside from herself secretly being a runaway slave. But she was in a torn up GX1 that could easily pass off as a pirate vessel, still, she answered hails and used the proper channels for requesting docking and the such. Once landing on Ithor, she checked the registry to see if her ship was around. Sure enough, that business exec kept their word so far, and the Gymsnor-3 was here. While Scar was happy, she was also just a bit stressed, only because it now meant she had to move everything from the GX1 into the Gymsnor-3, which would probably take the better part of a day, especially since it was on a different landing platform. Wouldn't easily be able to save credits when she'd have to rent a cargo hover. And sure enough, now she had to pay for both landing pads while her ships sat around.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Ithor, New Imperial Order Status: Leaving

Doing her best not to attract attention, she pays the necessary fees for docking and reserving landings pads, even if a dock manager gets a little stingy. After a whole days work of moving her cargo and supplies, leaving anything she doesn't use anymore back in the GX1, she finally relaxes as she inspects her new ship. The Gymsnor seemed to have an almost similar cargo capacity to the GX1, but it definitely felt as though it had more room. The Short Hauler felt like she was cramping into two-by-two lavatory the entire time. Yet, in the Gymsnor, it only felt like that in the crawl space of the forward neck when trying to enter the cockpit. Surely this would be easier to traverse when in space, so for now she was satisfied with the ship and the deal she made. But after the once-over she figured it was time to leave. She would have tried to check the ship out for explosives or tricks, but she knew that would be a waste of time. She was no expert at finding hidden stuff, so if they wanted to hide a bomb, she'd never find it, and they wouldn't bomb her before the got the item anyway, so it's a waste of time she could be using to investigate.

It certainly had better facilities, cleaner of course as well, albeit with discontinued appliances. It was good to have working facilities, and hopefully the hyperdrive was in better working condition. Once all was said and done, Scar did her flight checks as usual, requesting to leave docking. She would leave the GX1 here for now, paying for its pad rent until the job was done. She wanted her credits worth, so she'd crunch the numbers when the mission was over. As she exited the atmosphere, she put in the new coordinates. Ithor seemed done, now she just had to go into Sith space and start snooping around, not much she can do to hide her trail there. Her next location would be the MZX32905 system, thankfully there wasn't a long and painful route to take for this one, as local salvagers and others kept an up-to-date route, unfortunately this meant the notorious pirates or bandits might be lurking, and even that could get Sith patrols to lurk. It had been a long time since had been on this side of the galaxy. The Sith just weren't her type to get involved with, so she more or less had abandoned it.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

After finally arriving at the specific coordinates, it was time to search. Scar, in general, thought this was a lost cause. The asteroid was destroyed countless lifetimes ago, whatever was left would be scrap and rock, if the salvagers didn't want that. But it did spend some time out of civilian hands, enough that it would be regarded as a place full of darkness and myth, however that just might have interested others for glory and adventure. Scar wasn't here for that, though. She was just here to scavenge through what remained and get the hell out, she may not be a salvager or pirate, but she knows you just don't hang around certain places. Even still, it could be a place where others seek to catch someone off guard. Scar didn't expect to be alone and perfectly safe inspecting the left over debris, but she couldn't keep worrying. Worrying didn't get the job done.

Laying in a destination within sublight speed, she approached where her intel told her the final remains of The Home existed. There was no asteroid for a rational orbit, so she shut off the engines at a safe distance from the debris and powered down non-essential systems. She didn't want Sith patrols detecting her all the way out here, which was once a dark-side base, no less. The small crawlspace in the neck of the ship proved to be simpler when in space, since there was no gravity, she was able to float through the neck instead of crawling through it. Passing through the kitchen, she checked on her personal ration of nutripills, making sure if she was separated from her ship that she would be fine. She didn't like space... it was cold and dark, and no sunlight was the worst part of it. While Bimmiels sun was nearby, she was certainly far, and shadows could cover her location at any moment for any amount of time. She needed the nutripills, but she wouldn't be able to consume them if she didn't find an oxygenated environment.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

Scars suit wasn't really intended for use in space, though it did have limited spacial abilities, as did most suits and helmets, at least with emergency oxygen. So she packed a few extra canisters for both oxygen and any needed extra oomf when it came to mobility, but mainly she planned to use her grappler and her astromech friend, hopefully his thrusters didn't need maintenance, like most of the junk she owned. Knocking on the door to one of the cabins as she walked over to the loading ramp, her R5-44 astromech took the signal to boot up and exit the cabin, strolling over to her. "Alright R5," she started, double checking her suits seals, "we'll be checking out what's left of an old mining station, alright? I doubt anything is left intact or is even sealed, but I need to watch out for anything suspicious, and help me open any doors or move around. You juiced up enough in those thrusters?" The R5 unit seemed to make a positive sounding beep, which only made sense to Scar because she had a 'talk' with the astromech, explaining she doesn't actually understand droid language, and needed it to mainly speak in high tones for good response and low tones for a bad response. Not that great for communication, but it would get the job done, for the most part.

Finishing up the checks, Scar checked her helmet seal one last time before hitting the decompression button, then the loading bay button, which the loading bay started to shift downward. At this moment, Scar realized she should have purchased magnetic boots or something, as she noticed the astromech activating its magnetic ability to keep hold onto the loading bay. She sighed, before grabbing at a small oxygen tank and aiming it to act as a makeshift thruster, orientating herself proper. Now she just had to get to the wreckage. She held onto the astromech as she tried to control her breathing, "Let's head to the largest wreckage first," and the R5 unit slowly activated their thrusters towards the wreckage. While the R5 could zip on over and had the capability to break properly, it had an extra humanoid momentum and probably felt it against their programming to let the humanoid smack into an asteroid or break an arm because they couldn't stop. Scar was going to be floating the entire time with a small, limited amount of oxygen, because she wanted to save what few credits she had. This could have been easier, but she didn't make it easier.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

Upon reaching the largest wreckage of asteroid, which was really not any bigger than the command bridge of her ship, Scar re-orientated herself to line up with it, which it seemed this chunk wasn't completely decimated due to what is guessed to be thick bit of iron and anti-blast material, with a blast door. "Well, that explains a couple things," she muttered under a half breath, pushing herself towards the door to inspect it. "R5, see if there's anything you can do," she spoke up, just as she realized she needed to change her oxygen. As the astromech inspected and scanned around the object, Scar swapped out an oxygen tank, still staring at the door when her eyes were free. She didn't quite know how to get inside.... it was so small that even the right blast charge could damage anything inside. It seemed the astromech wasn't really getting anywhere, either, as its best shot would only be if there was any power. There was an idea to try and find any power couplings, but if she connected the ships power it could fry the systems if it's not the right amount of power. She wasn't a mechanic but she was no idiot... activating power converters were a simple enough job for slaves.

As she was fiddling with these mini oxygen tanks, she sensed something off about this place. She already felt uneasy, but she felt like she was hearing whispers. She knew this was impossible because the whispers would have to be in her helmet, as one can't exactly whisper in space. Then she started feeling like she was being watched, memories started to spark of her days as a slave, where she would be mocked in hushed voices. She would turn to where she thought the voices were, but there was nothing. Turning back to the blast door, for a moment, she thought she saw some shadowy figure. It made her jump and reach for her side arm, but by the time she grabbed it, it had long faded away. The astromech beeped at her inquisitively, curious to her behavior and Scar felt embarrassed for a moment that she was just caught looking stupid. Either way, she knew the only way to open this door would be the long, gentle way. The alternative was the short, aggressive way, and no matter what it was a risk.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

"R5, go get the ship, pull it up next to the asteroid," Scar ordered as she moved around the object, which she ascertained was a small room or vault of some kind. The astromech made its beeps and left back towards the ship, Scar didn't know if it could interface well, but it was a droid - she just assumed it. Besides, it didn't need to fire up the engines, just to active some of the reaction control systems thrusters and move it a little close. It wasn't anchored down, or even stuck in a gravity well. Scar just had to hope the droid didn't malfunction in the middle of controlling the RCS. Well, she found where the power primarily came through that powered the blast door, but she needed a proper access panel for the astromech to interface with, as staring at a bunch of ancient wiring wasn't really going to do them good. Thankfully, there was such an access panel with droid interfacing, now she just had to hope R5 could be compatible in some manner. She didn't think they'd be too off, compatibility wise, considering the era, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Turning to see the ship coming in, it seemed to slow down with the left outrigger being next to her. The next half an hour would be Scar wrestling with her last oxygen tanks and trying to communicate with a droid on which power cables to use and where to connect them. At least one of them knew something about electrical engineering! Once Scar got all the cables connected, it still took some time for R5 to access the blast doors security, and even then it may not be simple. At least any security systems would be inoperable as they;d be long destroyed. After a moment, R5 finally got the locking mechanism loose, but much more was basically impossible. Due to the many attempts to try and force open the door, it was bent and mangled, and that's not including the damage from whatever caused the destruction of the base. At least it was unlocked, and now all Scar had to do was battle the weird whispers and creepy shadows while trying to force open the door.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

If she had a lightsaber, she could probably just cut it open, or cut the parts of the door that were mangled and not allowing it to move. One problem she encountered with the door was that it always needed power, or the lock seemed to fall back into place. She had been out in space far too long, and even had R5 go and refill an oxygen tank. It's not like she could get a lot of leverage, either, she was forced to use her grappler to even try to hold her in place as she tried to budge the door, but it was no use. She knew any longer out here and she'd be trying her luck, so she did the only thing she could, really. "R5, come here," she said as she deactivated her grappler, and pulling out a detonator. It wasn't a placing charge, so she hoped it would just shift the door enough that she could push it open. It was meant for infantry, but infantry nowadays meant super armor.... Either way, she activated the detonator and placed it between the door and the wall, and grabbed onto the astromech. "Go, R5!" the astromech made unpleasant noises as it tried to pull Scar away. Scar put her arms up to cover her face, just in case, as the detonator blew. There was really little to no damage on the door, but now she had to see if it budged.

Telling the astromech to go back, and grappling to the vault once more, she tried to move the door. As weak as Scar was, if she was dealing with gravity, this would be impossible. But thankfully, the door was loosened, and she readjusted her grapple position so that she could push the door open. Retracting her grappling hook she looked inside, which seemed bare and bland. She activated the light on her helm as she drifted in with one of her tanks. Inside there was a large rectangular box inside, which she could only guess was a coffin. In front of it, was a pedestal with a peculiar object on top of it. It was no holocron, but it was definitely made differently to the pedestal and the vault, even the coffin. She pocketed the item, which was almost no larger than her pistol. After taking a moment to observe the room once more, she decided she wanted to leave. Even if it was a Sith coffin, she would literally be asking for death if she desecrated a Siths burial. But as she turned, she heard more whispers, this time they grew so loud that it hurt her ears. She grabbed her head and shook it as her breathing ramped up. She felt like the whispers were coming from the pedestal, and she flung around to kick it. It seems it was made of cheap materials, as the top of the pedestal came off, and so did the whispers stop. After calming down, she looked inside the broken pedestal, and saw a triangular object. One of these had to be what she was looking for, so she grabbed it and called for R5. She was ready to leave and almost out of oxygen.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Investigating Destroyed Asteroid

When she got on the loading platform in her ship, she quickly hit the button to retract the platform. She had to be hasty but watch her breathing as she was on her last tank. Next time; get a better suit for space. She was also freezing, so that didn't help. The astromech had no trouble, clamping down its magnetic feet and sitting idly as the platform raised. Unfortunately, the ship was going to be freezing, as well, as she turned off the environmental controls. The only thing really on was life support.... more or less. As soon as the airlock was sealed, she repressurized the room and tore off her helmet to breathe as soon as it was safe to. Almost immediately, however, she put it back on. It was the only thing keeping her face from becoming an iceblock! She quickly moved back to the command bridge to turn on the environmental controls, but as soon as she did, her ships alert for incoming vessels started to blink. She was going to have to shiver while evading. She didn't know what was coming until she pulled up the specs.... two fighters and some sort of armed freighter.

"Hey R5, get in here," she yelled towards the back of the ship, as she booted up the engines and fired up the weapon systems, "I need you on the gun!" The thing seemed to only have one turret, while a turret was better, it was at the direct front; above the command pod. Which meant there was probably going to be blind spots in the rear. Unfortunate, that's where she needed them. Once the ships got closer, she confirmed they were pirates, probably lying in wait to see if she found anything. It was only more confirmed by the fact they tried hailing her and demanding she dropped her cargo. Space couldn't have been more quiet when she started, and that meant the louder it was going to be by the end. The galaxy never fails to keep on giving. Ignoring the hails for obvious reasons, she turned the ship around, laying in the coordinates for Lorrd. Already, the E-wings were firing on her, but thankfully these CorelliSpace shields were holding. Until that bigger ship came in, that was the real threat.

 

[Milla Kryst]

Location: Bimmiel, Sith Empire Status: Evading Hostiles

As she pulled off from the engagement, the E-Wings didn't seem to fire any torpedos.... maybe they were out of ordinance? But that didn't matter, as Scar was trying to charge the hyperdrive, the freighter came into target range, and its heavy laser started hitting her. It rocked the shields, and Scar knew that thing was designed to break through them. She couldn't send off an S.O.S. because she couldn't be caught, nor did she want the local authorities here. Especially not the Sith. Anything but the Sith! R5 was on the turret, firing on the starfighters, as they both knew they were the best likely target to hit. The freighter would stay directly behind them as the fighters did hit and run tactics to throw the ship off course. Still, R5 was not the greatest at aiming, and did very little in the way of warding off the fighters. Scar would try her hand, but she couldn't drop the evasive maneuvers either. All she had to do was get the hyperdrive charged and she could eventually out run these pirates.

On short notice, Scars limited intelligence devised the only plan she could really think of; "R5, hold off a minute," reaching over to the comms to broadcast a message, she spoke up over the comms, "this is ...Anarchy Four-Four-One, Gymsnor-3 Light Freighter, salvaging vessel. Requesting break off, I repeat, requesting break off.... uuuuh, we will jettison all cargo in the rear, please hold fire." She had to delay them as much as possible. She activated the loading platform and it lowered, ignoring the airlock seal and anything in the loading bay got sucked out. There wasn't really anything in the loading bay, except maybe a handful of tools she had to replace later. This prompted the freighter to momentarily stop firing, but the fighters kept shooting. "Opening Outrigger Cargo Bays...." that was a lie, she wanted the pirates to think she was jettisoning the cargo, when really she was doing her best to get the hyperdrive to charge. The freighter realized this, and hammered the Gymsnor again with the heavy turret. The plan didn't really work out, and she had to try and evade again. She ordered R5 to fire again, but the astromech was pretty pathetic at it. The only guaranteed light in all this darkness was that the hyperdrive in this ship wasn't old or malfunctioning, just stuttered from weapons fire, but it was good to go, and Scar hit the go lever.