Hear Me Baby, Hold Together (The Underground)

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Kale Arkin"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Coren Starchaser"][member="Sam Turain"] [member="Eliza Steele"]

Someday Dad's gonna rewrite the Jedi Code to make it more like the Code of the Outer Rim, I figure. It'll probably include a line about tomo-spiced Karkan ribenes. Preferably from Karkin' Ribs, which he calls the best hole-in-the-wall on Ord Mantell and Mom calls a dive. Me, I haven't eaten since lunch and I'm starving. I sort of got into one of the plastifoam containers on the way over, but I'm pretty sure I got all the sauce off my face. Tomo-spice barbecue sauce is what I grew up on, and Karkin' Ribs makes the best Karkan ribenes I've ever had. I think tomo ain't the only spice in the sauce, but we don't talk about that.

"Food!"

I sort of have to shout over the hydrospanners. I hold up the bags full of plastifoam-clad ribene dinners -- it's heavy, but I can deal -- and shout it again.

"Food!"

Then I start going around and dishing out ribenes to everyone. "Doesn't matter if a little sauce gets in the circuits. Not with the NSD S-6, anyway." Which is what they're all working with. It's not a Silkworm, it ain't even a Mando Type 500, but it'll do in a pinch, and from the look of this hungry crew they've been pinching for a while.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He didn’t mean to offend her, Force no, Coren wasn’t looking to out and offend people. He was just starting to get his life together again after everything that’d gone on from waking up without memories to his wife not returning during the rapture event. Feeling her come back to her own from the Force, the Corellian nodded. Looking at her then the hyperdrive he shrugged.

“Wasn’t meant that way. Just, civilian, yeah?” He was only indicating that. Twirling the hydrospanner in his fingers, he looked to the hyperdrive. Without really waiting for [member="Spark Finn"] to answer, he looked at the drive. “Alright baby, let’s see what we can do here.” He got to work making a few of the manual adjustments, reaching out to the piece in the Force, just to know what it was looking like.

Focusing for a few moments, he turned his attention back to the conversation at hand. “Just an Imperial group, things are a bit strange on that whole side, basically something out of the history books. But that was… before? I dunno, still family to me, just… we were doing work in the Fringe, keeping the space clear from what lurked in the darkness, a bit more aggressive, but not needing to dominate the galaxy, y’know?” Good Imperials. A way of life over a strict doctrine.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Kale Arkin"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Coren Starchaser"][member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"] [member="Eliza Steele"]



Sam and his team went back to work, placing the altered engine in the probe body carefully. Once the diagnostic machines showed that everything was checking out as in the green, they shifted it to where the launch queue was and moved to the next engine that needed alterations.

Then the food came. Sam hadn't realized how hungry he was, but at the smell of the tomo-spice barbecue sauce his stomach growled audibly. He lightly set down the tools he was using and accepted the food, he instantly dove in.

 

[Spark Finn]

The slicer's gaze was momentarily pulled away by a kid covered in more grime than the ribs probably had sauce. The mini-Merrill probably had more strength in her Tom-boy arms clutching that food than Spark had in her whole body. "Thanks." She just hoped the kid wasn't looking for a tip cause the techno-nerd didn't usually carry around credits anymore.

"And yeah. I've never been part of an extremely structured command. But I've seen war. Been in it for both the Republic and Sith." She munched on the ribs quietly, introspectively. He spoke of family but she had never been close to hers or had people like that. There was one. But she hadn't seen him since escaping the Nether and since confronting Lord Carach.

A drop of bbq sauce dripped onto her pants.

"Fringe, eh? I just came back from a mission around there. A little clandestine. We were worried we'd run into some of those Fringe members but never did. You ever crossed paths with them? I hear they harbor mass murderers and keep bones of their enemies around their necks."



[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"][member="Coren Starchaser"]

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Right, food, and kids. Taking to lean back from the hyperdrive and giving it a nearly loving tap, he watched the Micro-Merrill run past and drop ribs. That was the thing with Coren, he had kids, grown and out, but with his lifestyle and the… however many years he spent in cryo, they were grown while he was gone. Jared kept up the fight aboard the home ship, leading the wing. Kaia… she was in the Jedi somewhere, he heard Levantines. Wouldn’t surprise him if she came around to the Astro Academy and ended up in his class.

So what, Coren’s loyalty was really to the void. Anyone who was giving him new places to explore, discover and see how well the oceans and other chances for an induced adrenaline rush were, ended up on the top of his list. Fringe, Levantines… Just had to understand his tough love for anyone that fethed with his things. Or people.

“Thanks, kid.” He said to the Micro-Merrill as they… it? He? She? The child ran off.

“Oh? So, what, flipped sides? What brought ya out this way?” Sometimes Coren dropped into his Corellian accent, sometimes he just fell straight into a Rim accent. And should he have wished to, he’d probably made some comment about her looking a bit more hot in the pants, but… well, the moment passed.

“Came across a fair few.” Didn’t need to admit to her, not yet, that he worked along side them. “Most don’t seem that… feral? They’re out there keeping the things that go bump in the night from going bump in the day and eating whole planets.” That was why he was there, and that was why he’d remain as a Warden to the Unknown Regions.

Now that was a title.

[member="Spark Finn"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

She munched on another rib and managed to find a napkin...ten more napkins. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the jedi. Got techno-virused and picked up by a sith lord." She twitched. "Long story. I-I don't know if I can trust my memories but I found out about it and confronted the guy - [member="Darth Carach"]. Surprisingly, he didn't kill me. Just let me walk out."

Bony-shoulders shrugged. She had trust issues and for good reason.

"I wanted to make my own decision for once. Read up on the Underground and liked what they stood for. I figured I could grow here and maybe it'd be safe for awhile, with distance away from the Jedi and Sith...until I get a little stronger. Make sense?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Carach…He knew he’d heard that name somewhere in the Unknown Regions, he thought. Still, the Imperial turned explorer was a bit concerned. Sith got to this girl? “He’s a Sith, and he let you go?” Maybe there weren’t only crazy Sith in this day and age. “But a techno-virus? Need to put the help files on that one for me, Sparky.” Because she liked computers… Computers had help files. And now the joke was dead.

But still, she survived. “So, here hunting a way to end the Sith?” What about the Republic. Coren disliked them because he found them obnoxious and too worried about looking good rather than doing their fething jobs.

“But yeah, getting here makes sense. Keep on the move, do what you need to for yourself, take the jobs you want, see if you can find people to grow with…” He shrugged as he finished up his ribs. “It makes logical sense to me.” And that, dear readers, is the first, and only time, you’ll hear a Starchaser post with the word Logical in it. They were feelers and doers, not thinkers and watchers.

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Her cautious look relaxed a bit at Coren's attempt at a joke. Eye twitched again as she refocused her thoughts on Lord Carach. "He injected me with something...that made me loyal to him, a bunch of nanites but he altered them with the force so it wouldn't turn me into a completely mindless machine. It's like I had a rosy-tinted lense over everything he told me. I never questioned it, always accepted what he said and believed he had my best interests in mind. I fought battles for him."

She stiffened her shoulders against a shudder.

"So yeah, I'm not opposed to finding ways to mess with the sith. I ain't a fan of the jedi, either." She squinted at the hyperdrive. "We finished up with this one?"

She shot Coren a sideways glance.

"And with all your talk of paramilitary, you look pretty scruffy to be a rules and orders guy."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Now everyone had heard of people with ex-boyfriends. And everyone knew someone with that crazy ex that just ruined everything for the next few years. Yeah, that was basically the way Coren was thinking about Carach in relation to [member="Spark Finn"]. Sure, he wasn’t dense enough to think that she and the Sith were involved with one another. Even if they were, wasn’t his place to say anything. You pick on a few certain things, and then you learn about their flaws. Yeah, that wasn’t the best system, but it was how most sentient species worked, wasn’t it?

Nanites were bad news, and someone else affecting the machines through the Force? What was this guy? Part of the Techno Union (shameless plug say what)? Coren had kept his eye on that particular group. They had a lot of tech specialists, and while he did serve as a quartermaster tech specialist in some regard, he was definitely not a technopath. He just understood things and how they worked, an instinct really, more psychometry than anything.

But this one, she was all for finding ways to mess with the Sith? They’d get along. Sure, the government, the stormtroopers, TIE pilots, the pieces that involved an actual Imperial past, Coren would respect. After all, Palpatine was just looking to work with Thrawn to defend the galaxy from the Yuuzhan Vong. And well, with the Terrorist Rebel Alliance destroying that dream, the galaxy was now infested. “Yeah, there needs to be a balance. Can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the Republic, nor the way the Sith, sometimes, run things.” The crazy ones. Any religious fanatic was dangerous, after all.

Looking back to the hyperdrive, Coren nodded. “Yeah, think we might be. Anything else you can sense off it?” She was the resident tech expert, after all.

And then she went into the paramilitary bit of him. He looked around and shrugged. This outfit wasn’t so different from what he knew. There were people from all walks of life. “Well, it started off we were an Imperial recognized Wing, in the now defunct Fel Empire, around Bastion? When things went belly up, we started striking out on our own. Working with the Chiss and working in the Unknown Regions. Ships became our life, and it wasn’t so much about pomp and circumstance, but duty, and the mission. To bring order to the galaxy. Hell, if you go to my home ship, you’ll find that the Forcers are even different. Focus on different ceremonies and things.” Like fighters. And he was on a new Odyssey, while he had the ship that would carry him where he needed to go, he needed the fighter. That was the way Warbird Wing handled things. Working from a fighter, like a lightsaber.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Kale Arkin"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Spark Finn"] [member="Sam Turain"]

The ribenes distributed, Mara secured her own plastifoam container of tomo-spiced goodness and squatted near Finn and Starchaser. "Don't mind me, keep talkin'," she said, her focus on their technopathic whatnot. Chloe had shown her the basics of Force-enhanced hyperdrive mechanicness, but everyone technopathed and mechu derued a bit differently. Squinting her eyes shut, she concentrated on feeling what they were doing. Wouldn't be the worst idea to pick up some pointers, at least passively.

Secretly, she'd kind of hoped to find something to improve upon. In this, she was disappointed. One was a lot stronger than her, the other was a specialist; she couldn't spot any flaws.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

She stuffed the multiple used wet-wipes into a hovering trash droid. No shame. She wasn't about to get her data screen sticky. "Yeah. People coming together, united in a common goal no matter how diverse their backgrounds are. Sounds like here. But the sith claim they want to bring order to the Galaxy too. It's not just the mission but how it's done that matters."

She forced herself not to go into shell-shock. Melting down right now wouldn't be a great idea, especially when they had a shadow. "It's ready for testing unless she can pick up any flaws." Thumb jerked to the kid. Either the kid was force sensitive or fighting constipation with that look on her face. Spark took a guess for the former knowing the ribs would solve the latter if she was wrong.

"I don't think I've met you or seen you around. I'm Spark and that's Coren. Are you....you Merrill's kid?"

Another shot in the dark. But there was a resemblance. And she recalled something on Jorus's data file when she hacked into the Underground systems.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren could really roll with this concept. Working together for a common goal, probably why he came to the Underground in the first place. The Rebel Alliance was seeming to push some sort of weird political mumbo jumbo down peoples throats. And yes, this writer did just call selectivism mumbo jumbo, what? If he had the Little Black Book, he’d use that to clean his hands over these wet-napkins. Right, moving on to the actual Rebellion. “Sith get out of hand. I mean, I know I play hardball most of the time, but I’m normally not insane.” He said normally with such a joking tone.

Looking over at the kid, Mini-Merrill, Coren returned his eyes to Spark and smiled. “Kids that young can use the Force?” He said, in not too hushed of tones. On the Dawn Treader, children that were Force sensitive were given a full technical and combat education early. This did not include the Force. That was reserved for the few who seemed to be properly adjusted and wouldn’t burn the galaxy down by accidentally frying a representative of a star system. Kaia was flying TIE Advanced simulaton sorties before she could even consciously touch the Force.

As for this kid? Was it Merrill’s? Could probably activate the hyperdrive from there, if it… he? She? It. Coren was using it, tried hard enough. He was looking around the room at the rest of the group, how were their hyperdrives? Did they get their own little shadow?

[member="Spark Finn"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Spark Finn"] [member="Coren Starchaser"]

"No flaws," said Mara, still a little disgruntled about that. "You guys did good." Absently, she licked barbecue sauce off her fingers. "Yeah, I'm Merrill the Younger. And hey. I'm not that young." Sure, puberty hadn't kicked in yet, but-

Well, there wasn't really a but. She was young, and it sucked.

Italics.

She straightened up. "Don't talk about me like I'm not here, karkwit. I brought you ribs."

Mara Merrill, Queen of the Hyperlanes, tweened off in a huff, leaving a small trail of barbecue sauce.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Gray-blue eyes widened then slow-blinked at the back of the retreating, pre-pubescent -form of mini-Merrill.

Blink. Blink-blink.

She turned to Coren completely deadpan. "You're great with kids."

She watched as their hyperdrive was carted off to the next stage of testing by some droids probably bought and made by @Adekos.

Sandy-brows furrowed. Bony-shoulders stiffened. Back straightened.

"Wait. You're a sith?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

See? There was a reason his kids took really well to simulators. Yes, Coren Starchaser had two kids. There was a third but he got retconned away. Jared was top gun of the Warbird Wing and Kaia… she was in the Levantine Sanctum somewhere. He’d probably reconnect with her. She had more promise than her brother, honestly. And it was Merrill’s kid. Wonderful, he’d pay for that some how, he was sure. What, Merrill going to challenge him to a hyperspace off? Kind of like a dance off, or a walk off, but with hyperspace flights. Monkey see, monkey do and add.

And he made it angry. Shaking his head, he gave a look that could only be described Corellian before looking at [member="Spark Finn"]. “Hey, I…” Yeah, right, words, Coren. They’re called words.

Watching the droids, he nearly did a double take, and if he had been drinking anything it’d have been a spit-take moment. “Me? Sith? Seriously? No no no… I’ve worked along side them, but I’ve kind of made it my life’s goal,” according to datacrons and his own thoughts. “to make sure they don’t keep their power… for the wrong reasons. I’ve been pro Imperialization, but not pro-Sith, if that makes any sense?” He’d take down targets to get the Sith, but it’d be precision strikes. "Besides, what I do is a lot more... controlled than the Sith." Lie. Coren Starchaser is a lying lie who tells half truths.

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Face puckered like a lemon in thought as she stared at Coren. But her shoulders relaxed considerably when he said he wasn't a sith. "Good. I mean. Maybe some sith aren't so ba-," feth that, she couldn't lie to herself. She had been through too much.

"Just...okay."

She gingerly stood and shook out her cramped muscles. Looked like they were done here. The others were either still working or done well before them.

"Wait. What do you mean 'what you do?'"

That wary look was back on her face, like she was standing next to a very wild nexu.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Maybe some Sith aren’t all bad? Some had redeeming qualities, but the majority of the Sith running around the galaxy shouting that they were Sith? Yeah, those tended to be the kind that people traditionally thought of and it made a bad name for them all. The religion was about power, but the way they used it? Flawed. Coren had learned from a Sith Lord in his first go around with the Force, and from all accounts, that Sith went crazy. Now, Coren never took lessons in Sith ideologies, just the Dark Side. Which was fine, as long as it was employed correctly.

“Trust me, I’m not crazy, not here to hurt you.” Maybe another time quite the opposite. He had been focusing a lot on his build partner, and not so much on the rest of the crew who may have gone off to do other things. But this girl, this hipster-slicer-victim of the Sith was interesting. What did he do?

“Well, I was supporting Imperilization with the Fringe, hell would have with the One Sith if they weren’t so mynock-chit crazy. Remnant seems like they know what they’re doing, but that’s getting away from the point. I… instruct pilots and explorers now. But I’m also out there, tryin’ to keep what darkness is between worlds away from the civilizations. And I use all the powers I can muster.” Which wasn’t much, but you give a Starchaser enough anger and there was always lightning, well, in Coren’s case, draining. “the way I view the Force, its… wild, but not untamable.” That was what was so… addicting about the Dark Side.