Dragons and Chains

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

For once, he wasn't angry that the beast had touched him.

In another situation he might have been angry, perhaps even in a rage, but at the moment he was more...startled. In all his time Vrak had never encountered a species quite capable of...that. The Hutt were known for being surprisingly strong, even swift, they could digest almost anything. Rancors could bite through durasteel, but The Pureblood had never seen a creature capable of breathing fire...or whatever in the force that had been.

He frowned for a moment. "Good."

Vrak stated simply, as though her actions had been his intent all along. For a moment he lingered in the hallway, watching the curious flames that still seemed to bite at the air.

"Curious." He said to himself, his thumb slipping over the switch of his lightsaber to deactivate the weapon.

Perhaps this creature had other uses aside from being a simple blacksmith.

 

[Blackthorne]

Taking up the pilot's seat, which given her stature it was not quite big enough to really accomodate the Komodo in any capacity of comfort, Mahet thumbed the ignition once.

Twice.

Threeeeeee-there we go.

The engines awoke with a guttural rumbling, noise carrying like a marching band through the uninsulated sections of the ship so loud that she would not hear Vrak approach or even speak. Melfa reached to pull on a modified headset that curled around the base of her neck and sat clamped over her ears via two hooks clamped over the horns just above. When Vrak stepped in - if Vrak stepped in - she would point to another headset hanging off to the side.

Amidst the cacophony of painful loud engines the Brick slowly retreated from the docks, slowly pulled out into open space, slowly turned, and then, yes you guessed it, slowly kicked on the forward thrusters. Weren't nothing quick about it. The local station militia easily found them on their way out and like a swarm of birds flocking around a turtle began to throw a hail of fire upon them that pinged off the reinforced bulkhead.

Mahet, perfectly complacent with their situation, reached forward and calmly switched on the shields.

Starfighters buzzed around them attempting to hail on the comm. Mahet switched the external comm channel off and ignited the secondary engines. The ship gave a great lurch and slowly heaved itself into higher gear, plowing through incoming fire like a boulder blundering through the rain.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

His hand pressed against one of the metal walls of the hallway, his lips turning to a scowl.

The creatures flying was about as rough as it's hide, something he found rather unpleasant. The Brick or whatever the hell else she called it shook violently, it's engines thrumming loudly enough to cause a ringing in Vrak's ears. The Pureblood let out a curse as he stumbled forward, his feet uneven as the ship moved around and began to exit the hangar bay. He was vaguely aware of the fighters swarming around them, though the odd shaking of the ship hardly seemed to come from them.

The Pureblood continued his scowl as he finally passed the now smoldering corpses of the guardsmen.

Eventually Vrak managed to push himself up into the ship enough to find the cockpit, the steady stream of muted beeps being loud enough to guide Vrak to the proper place. He scowled again as he came up behind Melfa, his eyes floating through the viewport and across the panels in front of her. "The Caldera."
Would it even know where that was?

"Head towards there." That was where the Empire resided after all.

 

[Blackthorne]

Wop wopwoppa.

Slit yellow eyes slithered sideways at the man.

Wop waaaaa wa.

Melfa blinked at the man then looked at the headset she'd indicated and pointed at it again.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

Vrak looked at the creature disdainfully. It seemed degrading to need such a thing, especially when he could probably just have skipped all of this by ripping the information he required out of the creatures mind.

For a moment The Pureblood considered revisiting that particular option, but he figured right now it would likely end up with them crashing into the nearest pillar. Vrak scowled, then slowly scooped up the headset from where she had indicated. The noise of the vessel was immediately muted as he placed it over his head, though in an instant he already felt his anger spiking at this particular humilation.

"The Caldera." He restated.

The noise of the ship seemed to increase for a moment as he felt them buck to the left, his hand jutting out to grasp the back of the chair.

"Ignore this scum." He gestured towards the fighters in the viewport. "Get us to the Stygian Caldera."

 

[Blackthorne]

Had she the physical ability to do so she might've raised a brow. Unfortunately for Melfa, or perhaps fortunately given the circumstances and Vrak's withering patience, the overgrowth of horn on her skull prevented much in the way of brow articulation. Stuck forever in a murderous scowl sort of expression, no one would ever take Melfa seriously when trying to make a funny.

Or maybe it was simply the whole lost in translation thing.

I digress, Melfa did at least know what Caldera meant. She was rather familiar with that area of space, actually.

To the Caldera they went

and slowly.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

It was a small gift from whatever dark god watched over him that the creature had understood his instructions. He was able to verify that they were indeed headed towards the Caldera, and perhaps evne more luckily, Athiss.

Of course, said Dark God had also cursed him with terrible company and even worse conditions surrounding him.

The ship that Melfa lived aboard was a horrendous wretch of a thing, something that Vrak would only have imagined in his worst nightmares. The thing was loud, obnoxiously dirty, and everything that Vrak imagined slaves to own. It was pathetic really, and in truth Vrak felt somewhat pitiful towards the creature who owned this ship. Of course to it, Melfa, whatever it decided to call itself, the brick was a perfectly fine vessel and seemed to work just fine.

For Vrak it was something out of a nightmare, or close to it.

"How long?" He asked the creature, still wearing that ludicrous headset.

 

[Blackthorne]

Had he asked she might've told him it was not her ship at all. But he hadn't and as far as he knew, it was. Regardless of the fact, they were stuck in it for now and it was everything he noted. Old, rattle-bound, dirty, worn, tired, and yet somehow still soldiering on. All the hallmarks of a Mandolorian. Melfa liked this ship; it got the job done and had never given her any guff until just recently.

"It take long time," she said as the ship continued its crawl forward through the deluge of fighters. Melfa leaned forward and engaged the hyperdrive thrusters and with another heavy lurch it heaved itself into hyperspace, plowing through two starfighters in the process without so much as an additional shiver. Bugs on a windshield for the Brick.

"Brick not make for speed, ha? Reheheh..."

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

Perfect.

The trip was something that he wasn't really looking forward to, mostly because of the miserable conditions that surrounded this place. It was like something out of a horror flick. He scowled slightly, leaning back as they jumped into hyperspace and began their journey.

From where they were the trip to the Caldera to the Caldera would on average take about a day, of course if what Melfa said was true then things would likely take even longer. The Pureblood considered for a moment just telling her to drop out of hyperspace at the half way point so that he could have his own ship get them, but he realized that would mean she might flee back to wherever she had come from. He frowned, shifting his weight.

"I need to contact the fleet." He said plainly.

The Resrugent Empire watched it's borders carefully, sensor probes and half a dozen different patrols would likely catch their approach.

 

[Blackthorne]

"Mmm..." the Komodo rumbled thoughtfully, "Brick comm not work in hyperspace, can use Roc," she pointed a clawed hand to a droid cubby at the back of the control chamber where an astrodroid blinked a green light. R0-C2 was it's designation, but Roc just fit the theme.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

The Pureblood looked at the droid with no small amount of frustration.

It was like traveling on a freighter from a thousand years ago. His people weren't exactly known for their technological progression, a lot of their values were more in line with the ancient ways, but at least they carried around communicators and other helpful things. A frown pulled at the Purebloods lips, his gaze wandering towards the creature and then back towards the astromech.

Eventually he let out a sigh.

Vrak knew as a matter of fact that if they didn't alert the fleet of their coming something would happen. This vessel traveled so slowly that the Resurgent Empire wouldn't be able to not pick them up. by the time they arrived at their destination half of the armada would be present and waiting to blow them out of the sky. It was an unfortunate fact, and one that he would in all honesty rather have simply skipped over. Traveling on this thing was humiliating.

Without another word he stepped over to the droid, banging it on the head. "Contact this frequency."

Quickly he rattled off a list of numbers.

 

[Blackthorne]

Roc blurted a droid expletive at the rudeness of the red man. How poor of manners did one have to have to have less manners than a Mando? Perhaps the Ioren clan was an exception to the norm - they were quite civilized and well-mannered despite living underground. With an offended bleeping it did as asked, a small swirling antenna popping out from the top of its dome.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

Vrak ignored the droid.

The things were quite uncommon throughout most of the Resurgent Empire. There were a few of course, astromechs, protocol droids, but by and large most of that work was done either by slaves or another form of servant. Droids were seen as things for the lower classes.

Having a droid meant you couldn't afford servants, something most Sith wouldn't stand for. "Good."

A moment or two passed, the droids antenna popping up and spinning around for a few seconds until finally it's signal was locked. Vrak waited half a heartbeat, then was connected to a single holographic form. It frowned for a moment, then appeared startled as it spotted Vrak.

"Admiral." His tone was filled with more than a little bit of annoyance. "Prepare for my arrival."

He listed off the coordinates they came from, hopefully ensuring the fleet wouldn't blow them out of the sky the moment they arrived.

 

[Blackthorne]

An arrival that likely couldn't come soon enough for the red-faced man.

The Brick heaved out of hyperspace within the Stygian Caldera to a waiting envoy of Imperial ships. Warning sirens blared in the pilot's chamber as they came under the hawking gaze of their weapons systems. No one fired and certainly no one dared. Mahet thrummed the communications panel to open a line for Vrak to give his orders within the system.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

Vrak almost heaved as the brick fell out of hyperspace, his lips thin and his gaze filled with displeasure.

He hated this thing.

The ship itself was aptly name, and travel experience inside of a brick was about as fun as one might expect. He hung on to the top of the ceiling, holding himself steady so that he didn't have to sit in any of the disgusting seats on the bridge. As the first fleet came into view Vrak leaned down and pressed the communications panel. "This is Lord Nashar."

It was humiliating admitting that he was on this ship.

"Do not fire. We're landing aboard the flagship." They knew this of course, but all of them required confirmation.

A part of The Pureblood expected someone to open fire, any one of the star destroyers within range would be able to destroy this ship in seconds, but vanquishing Vrak this way would gain someone little actual effect. So instead of being blown to bits Vrak pointed towards the largest of the ships in the system, hoping the beast would understand that was where they were going.

 

[Blackthorne]

Melfa had seen plenty of ships in her day but that was without a shadow of a doubt one of the largest the Komodo had ever laid eyes on. She stared for a moment, dumbfounded by the sheer scale of the thing before taking the Brick around and navigating through the fleet to the designated hangar bay. When the ship touched down among rows of sleek fighters the rumbling engines sent set the nearest crafts into quaking vibrations. The Brick gave a guttural growl before going silent and spitting open the side loading ramp.

She pulled the headset from the nape of her neck and leaned to run post-flight operations before moving to follow after Vrak who, no doubt, made the fastest exit of a ship he's ever flown on in his life.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

The thought wasn't wrong.

Almost as soon as they touched down in the hangar bay Vrak was standing and walking out of the cockpit. The thought of staying even a single second longer aboard the vessel sickened him to a degree that he couldn't quite describe, something that he would no doubt express to anyone that would listen at a later time.

"Captain." He spoke to a Resrugent Legion Trooper standing at the end of the ship. "Lower your weapon or I'll have you thrown out the airlock."

Now was not the time for hostility.

By the time Melfa caught up to him Vrak would be standing a little ways away from the ship, almost as if he were trying to get some distance between himself and the awful nightmare that he'd been living through just a short while ago. When he spotted the creature he motioned for it to come over.

 

[Blackthorne]

Thum.

Thum.

Thum.

Thum.

Melfa's steps were slow as she took in the massive hangar bay, feeling exceptionally out of place within it for more reasons than one. Komodan caravan ships were often refurbished, retrogrades, anything they could afford to fix up on a tight dime. Very few Caravans had enough wealth to buy new and she was, so far as she could tell, engulfed in bleeding cutting-edge tech.

"Shuk-val..." she hissed in trader tongue [a very crude statement of awe] and turned her molten gaze at the signal from the red man. Forked tongue flicking out, tail swaying, she made her way over to him, "Melfa cannae make beska for all this," she was but one Komodo with limited supplies. Hopefully that was not what he intended.

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Melfa Exmoore"]

So it intended on keeping it's bargain.

Good Vrak thought to himself with a small smile. The Armada they were standing on was impressive, though it was really only a smaller part of the greater Resurgent Fleet. The various elements of the Armada spread out all over the Caldera in preparation for their assault on Serenno.

The Sith Lord smiled, perhaps the first pleasantry he showed the creature.

"You won't need to." Vrak stated simply. "You will only need to make two dozen sets of armor."

Did she have the materials for that? "Can you manage that?"

Vrak knew well enough what Beskar was worth, and he knew exactly what could be done with it. He had no intention of supplying everyone and everything in the Resurgent Empire with armor that made them immune to his most powerful weapon, but he did want to outfit his personal guard with such things.

For protection, of course.

 

[Blackthorne]

It took a moment to figure this and not for any failure of mental math. Melfa had yet to get a good look at the supplies in her ship to ensure nothing had been removed, but she was certain if it was all there...

"Sa, if full armor - Melfa can make half with what Melfa has," a nod, even if one box was missing, she should have enough for that, "will need more beska ore for rest."

This would take time, of course, but if the man had sources then he could likely retrieve the required ore while she was working on the first batch. He seemed the efficient sort to do something like that.