How did we end up here?

[Simone]

Simone tugged at the blanket around her shoulders, wrapping it a little tighter around her and stifling a yawn. The balls of her bare feet rested on the edge of the console and she shifted slightly in the pilots chair. The blue of hyperspace reflected on her face as she stared unseeing through the viewscreen.

Once upon a time, Simone had had dreams. She'd bury herself in her dreams when her mother's cries and the creaking on her bed would wake her, as she entertained yet another patron to feed her addiction. She'd dreamed of a better galaxy, a galaxy where there were only truths. She'd followed it through to, saving to buy the creaking heap of junk that carried them through hyperspace. It had started out well enough, she'd even earned herself a little fame in the reporting world for a women who crossed all the lines in order to get to the truth.

What a waste.

War ruined everything, and it reminded her of something that she often chose to forget. That the galaxy was built on lies. She'd erased everything she'd uncovered, and thrown herself off the radar, picked up by this charming fool to work as a slicer, and apparently now a taxi driver. So what now? Now Nar Shadda was behind them, now she had a chance to build a new dream.

Now the alarms were shouting at her.

"Feth!" Her feet dropped and she sat upright, they were scheduled to come out of hyperspace in another two hours. Either someone had an interdictor, or her hyperdrive was failing. The blanket slid from her shoulders as she grabbed the control stick and hit the ships comms.

"Khal, get up here."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

Once upon a time Khaleel had a dream and it was a good dream. It was a dream shared by most and many children growing up in the underbelly of Nar Shaddaa, a dream shared by all orphans and castless spawns trudging along the line. It was a dream of money, blood and perhaps a cigarette or two. In no way had Khal ever been a holy man, he had paid his dues, done the jobs asked of him and taken when things weren’t given.

An opportunity in the form of the Jedi Order though? He couldn’t pass such a thing up, it wasn’t infiltration, that would have been too simply way to put it. It had been an honest attempt to get away from his roots, butcha know what they say.

And if ya don’t, then screw off.

Khal had lost that battle, but he still tried to be a good man- relatively so. He tried to do what good men like Vaudin had taught him.

There is a fine line between a scoundrel and a scumbag kid. I remember Vaud, I will always remember.

‘What?’ he shouted, as the piece of scrap shuddered and almost threw him against a nearby hull. ‘Feth, I’m coming.’

Not an idiot or a fool would have managed to negotiate his way into ownership of the Nar Shaddian Underworld. But let her think he was a bartender, some secrets… were best undisclosed.

 

[Simone]

The ship shuddered violently as it reverted to real space and the cockpit became a orchestra of proximity alarms and damage reports. A sharp tug of the yoke jerked the ship to the right to avoid collision with an oncoming asteroid. She could feel her heart in her throat, but instinct overwrote fear as she battled to regain control and bring the ship to a standstill. Then was when he entered the cockpit and she sagged back, flexing cramped fingers momentarily. She covered her eyes with one slightly trembling hand and let out a slow breath, anger boiling in her chest.

She wasn't angry at anyone in particular, she was just angry at life. At the ship and at the fething hyperdrive. She dropped her hand and spun the chair to the left to check the reports. Hyperdrive had failed. So where were they? She pointed to the console behind her. "Navigation," she snapped "find out where the hell we are."

What if she'd never bought this ship? What if she instead secured her mother a place in rehab instead of leaving her behind to rot on Zeltros? It would have been a waste of money, she knew that for certain. She always relapsed. Weak. The reports were a blur, flashing past her eyes and none of the information passed beyond her eyes. There was no taking it back now. She was gone. Overdose. Feth she could've have predicted that. Still, she'd loved her mother...hadn't she?

She'd never said a word to anyone when she'd gotten the message. She'd just retreated to her ship. 'Till he called her, that is.

Keep it together, Simone

She drew in a deep breath and read the report. "Hyperdrive is fethed. I don't know if I have the parts to repair it on board or not." She began going through the manifest. Maybe she should have gone to the funeral. Her patrons and dealers would've been lined up with their filthy hands that always strayed and there smiles that glittered with gold as they extended their hands in expectation of Simone to repay her mother's debts.

"Feth you all," she muttered May the netherworld consume you and make you suffer as she did.

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px] Keep it together, Simone [/SIZE]

[SIZE=14.3999996185303px]"Where are we Khal?"[/SIZE]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

Every once in a while Khaleel wondered. It was a wonder that wasn’t exclusive to him, just like his dreams it was shared by all orphans at least once in their young years, and just like his dreams it as a simple wonder.

It was the pondering on how it would be like to have parents, to have people take care of you for you and not for your money. To have commitment without having to do anything to earn it. Most orphans didn’t think on it too much though, eventually it was grinded away into dust after everything they had to go through.

The mention of parents was a myth for them, a metaphorical idea of ‘the others’. But it never came to mind that perhaps people with parents weren’t always as happy as you would consider at first hand.

Khal took control over the navigation control, checking over the panels and trying to figure out where they exactly where. Not an easy job with this piece of trash can, but he had known worse.

Vaud always had liked to say that it brought character to a ship.

Eventually, he managed to bring up an image on the screen and it was… fabulous. At least the general idea of it, didn’t really look like much now. But Khal’s imagination was working full tour to bring in the lights, neon and general sexyness of the location.

‘We are…’ Khal pondered and then started to smile. ‘Heh. We just landed the jackpot, babe. Check the image.’

And it would show the following.

Spoiler

​

Spoiler

​

​

 

[Simone]

Simone turned to regard the image, her anger easing. "Is that..." She enlarged the image, zooming in where she could. "By the force..."

She moved to her scanners and began a general sweep of the space station. "It's cold." she commented "No life signs...some residual heat in the old hangar bays, looks like someone's been here recently. Life support systems are functional..."

It was so easy to find a distraction, so easy to throw herself into work when it presented itself and forget all her worries. It was why she worked, quiet times gave her too much of a chance to wallow in self pity. She lifted her gaze from the console and swung back to the ships controls. It shuddered in protest but began to move forward towards the space station, scanning as it went and sending data to Khaleel's console.

"Look at this thing, it's incredible...I wonder who built it here."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

What this was, was an opportunity of lifetime. A place where they could set up new operations for the Exchange, a place… where they could make a life for themselves without being annoying and pestered by the likes of the Red Ravens and their breed of stupid criminality. The ship obviously didn’t have the kind of sensors to really give a good idea on the dimensions or anything else, but by the looks of it? Well, the thing was bloody huge.

Might have been ten times the size of sector Dee Twenty Four and that said something about the entire operation that could spring up from this. It was so much to take in that he finally leaned into the back of his seat, took out the pack of cigarettes and offered one to [member="Simone"].

Whichever decision she would be taking soon the pit was positively smoldering in the smoke of his cigarette and boy did it feel good.

‘Ah…’ Khal finally exhaled and scratched his chin. ‘Always knew the best things in life just decide to sit on your lap.’

 

[Simone]

Simone accepted the cigarette and resisted the urge to make a snide remark about how many women Khal may have said that to. For sometime, she was quiet, inhaling the smoke and watching the station through the screen. This was it. A project that could go well beyond anything she'd ever done. A chance to really leave the galaxy as they knew it behind and create something fresh.

Sitting forward again, the cigarette hanging from the corner of her mouth she guided the ship towards the nearest hangar bay. The Ugly Duckling groaned in protest as its landing gears extended, connecting with the floor with a reverberating clang. She began to set the systems in standby and patted the console. "Alright old girl, you can rest for bit now." Getting to her feet, she unhooked her satchel from the back of her chair, taking another drag from the cigarette as she slung it onto her shoulder.

"Shall we?"

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

The slung made it so that there was a brilliant view on certain goods, which normally Khal wouldn’t have really minded, but he was interacting with this girl for a while now and something told him the hot and bothered attitude she displayed to men was a simple visage to hide something else. Eyes strictly on the exit, he grunted his acknowledgement and brushed past her.

During the brush he warned her though, seemed courteous.

‘Might want to fix up ya shirt, lass.’ Khal mentioned and kept walking, very pointedly not looking back to the steaming hot girl he was leaving behind. Another puff of the cigarette gave him the energy needed to keep walking.

No lifesigns, meant that for now they would have the station slash asteroid city for themselves, but the heat signatures in the hangar bays suggested something. The suggestion wasn’t entirely to his liking, but ya can’t always have whatcha want.

First order of business- at least for him, would be to go back to his bunk and get his gear. He had a few things that might be useful for the mission.

 

[Simone]

Simone wasn't sure whether to be grateful, or relieved at Khal being very deliberate in not looking at her cleavage. She adjusted the shirt in an almost irritated manner as he disappeared to the rear of the ship to get his belongings. She pushed the matter aside and lowered the landing ramp, moving out into the hangar bay as she did. Tugging a handheld scanner from her hand she began to sweep the area, eyes flicking from the scan results that flickered across her screen to the hangar bay floor.

There were marks here and there of at least three ships. She moved towards one, crouching and brushing her fingers over it. Only people that would use a derelict place like this would be pirates and smugglers. There first port of call would have to be to see what automated defenses this place had. Last thing she wanted was to be outgunned. She rose and moved to a control panel, slicing into it with ease and downloading the schematics to her computer while waiting for Khal to join her.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

He had a few things that would be possible as aid for their exploration of the asteroid slash space station slash city slash whatchamacallit, mostly special drones coming from the Unknown Regions. Ya the Exchange had some connections here and there, and they managed to get a special droid mapping tool, spherical device which was able to feed back all its findings into a little wrist computer.

Meant that they would be quicker to map the entire thing out, Khal grabbed his bag and his bloodstripe and then followed Simone outside. Who was apparently already busy with slicing into the frame and figuring out the more literal schematics.

Huh.

It was good to have a slicer under his employ sometimes, though she was one sassy woman every once in a while. Which was a different word for all the fecking time, suppose it was worth it though looking at her credentials.

Khal sighed, sometimes he really was the worst.

‘What we got?

 

[Simone]

"We've got ourselves a small city."

She smiled slightly. "It'll take months, maybe even years to fully explore this thing with just the two of us." She activated a holoprojector on her wrist enlarging the images on her screen and mapping a route out for both of them to see. "Mainframe is here," she highlighted it with a flashing red dot. "Right in the heart of the city. Hard to get to and from what I can tell used to be heavily defended. Whoever has been coming here has long since disabled automated defenses." The holoprojector flickered out and Simone detached her computer from the console sliding it neatly back into her bag.

"I can get it back online, but I need to get to the mainframe to do it. We'll get a better idea of the state of this place from there too."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

Khaleel nodded and then pulled out somethinghttps://41.media.tumblr.com/5d50ccf1dc4f88a4e934ce1eb2396f4c/tumblr_nm7tkb2LeN1qd479ro1_1280.jpg from his backpack, it was the mapping tool that he had been thinking about a few minutes ago. Quite a handy tool, even if they had the official schematics right here and there, but what it wouldn’t be giving them was other nondescript information that they probably would need, but the writers weren’t really aware of right now.

‘We can probably use these to make the exploration easier.’

It would map the other regions while they were busy busting their balls off trying to get to this particular mainframe. Briefly he wondered if there would be a whole army of droids trying to stop them, it would have made it much easier to get this writing outta the door.

But sometimes ya just gotta be difficult about this stuff, and it seemed that with the automated defenses shut down right now they would have to contend with awkward pillow talk.

Minus the pillow.

 

[Simone]

Simone took the mapping tool from his hand, inspecting it briefly before handing it back. "There are better ones on the market, but it'll do the job well enough."

There were times, when things came out of Simone's mouth and she wished very much she had said something different, or simply nothing at all. She hadn't meant to sound condescending, but she did. Oh well, there was no taking it back now. Its not like Khal hadn't had his fair share of sass from her anyway. She offered an almost apologetic smile and moved to lock the ship. Not that there was anything of real value but, it was habit.

"Alright scoundrel," she said moving back to join him. "Lets go."

As they moved through the derelict station, Simone found herself drawing closer to Khal the further they went in, more out of comfort than fear. It was nice to know when walking through a deserted city space station in the back end of the galaxy that you were not, actually, alone. "This place must have been amazing once, and I never even knew it existed. What do you think happened?"

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

Khal simply shrugged and took another drag from the cigarette that was still firmly perched between the lips, in honest he didn’t particularly care that she was giving him sass about the mapping drone. Simply ‘cause few things these days could really touch ‘em, after ya gotta spend a few years in purgatory stuff becomes so much more… abstract in the form of human interaction.

‘Best I could do, lass.’

He threwhttps://33.media.tumblr.com/e35899737753dc00cfe276b495ae8aeb/tumblr_nm7tkb2LeN1qd479ro3_500.gif the drone in the air and did the same with the others in his pack, they would go on on their own and map out the immediate area of the city. In the meanwhile they would be able to get to the mainframe and see what there was to do there. The darkness didn’t scare him anymore, neither did being alone in a hostile environment.

The rapturing during the Netherworld had made that possible, so it was ironic that when he pondered on that she asked his opinion on what had happened here.

‘Perhaps they were pulled into hell, like the rest of those billions poor souls and never managed to return home.’ Khal answered grimly, but in the end he shrugged. ‘Or maybe this was an investment-project, the investment didn’t manage to pay back and was abandoned in return.’

Or maybe it was an old celestial casino city, where the ancients could have played pazaak when they felt like it.
[member="Simone"]

 

[Simone]

"Seems unlikely." There is was again, that condescending tone. What the hell was wrong with her today? "I know billions went missing, but there was always someone to come back, and there would always be another investor out there for something like this." They were passing a row of shops who's windows were shattered. "Something drove these people out." She moved to a shop window cupping her hands and peering into the darkness. "Its like they just up and left."

They walked in silence for some time and Simone found herself chewing the inside of her cheek. Should she tell Khal? Give him a heads up as to why she was so snarky? What was the point? Not like he would understand, or be able to offer any comfort. She made a noise of disgust at her own self pity that she rapidly turned into a cough.

"Khal... I...umm..."

She stopped walking. "There's something you should know-"

Clank, Clank, Clank.

That was a sound she was familiar with, coupled with the distant whine of servo's. The droid patrol round the corner and raised their blasters. Fear caught Simone off guard, snatched away her instincts and left her rooted to the spot as the opened fire.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

A little boy huddled in the corner of the street, his palm facing upwards, face lined with grime and dried tears. In the back of his mind, when he wasn’t busy begging for a little coin there was only a single thought that crossed his mind.

What was wrong with him?

Something must have been wrong with him, something must have been not right, that his parents had decided to abandon him on the streets.

And it had never entered his mind that perhaps his parents were at fault.

But that was a long time ago and Khaleel took her remarks in strides, instead he kept studying their environment, eyes of the fallen wondering and keeping a look out. You never knew what else might pop up to be a shu-

Droid. Patrol. Four, five pieces and they were raising their blasters. Time slowed down as Khaleel’s heart started pumping, adrenaline coursed through his veins and he did the only thing he thought made sense.

The scoundrel pushed [member="Simone"] away, always trying to do what was best- in his eyes and soaked up the initial damage. Two blaster shots, one to the gut and the other one in the leg, Khal slumped to the knee.
Groan escaped his mouth as he lined up a shot and the shotgun roared, electronics buzzed as the EMP hit ‘em like a mother. Squad disabled.

But how much more were there?

 

[Simone]

Khal's push slammed her into the shop window, where she dropped to her haunches and covered her head. Her heart was racing, hands trembling and she found herself rushing down memory lane.

She was out cold, drool running from the corner of her mouth, her cheek tinged with purple by a fresh bruise. Her clothes were askew, exposing the delicate pink flesh of her chest. The patron made a noise of disgust, swinging a kick at her mother's unconscious form.

"No!" Simone rushed forward from her hiding place, a kitchen knife clutched in her tiny hands. Eight years old and defending her mother. She stood over her mother, knife held up at the ugly brute, her lower lip trembling. He laughed at her, his great paws swinging down to clout her over the head. She hit the floor hard, and dazed the knife skittering out of her grasp. She got to her hands and knees and crawled towards her precious defense. Her only defense.

Something connected with her gut as her fingers close about the handle again. She screamed in pain, swung round and drove the blade into his thigh. So much blood.

She crawled back as he pulled the knife out, spitting angry curses at her as he tried to stem the river of red. She'd backed into a corner, curled into a ball she wept as he left, desperate to find help to stop his life from leaving him.

Stabbed by an eight year girl.


Get it together, Simone.

She moved as soon as the EMP hit, adrenaline and instinct overcoming fear as it always did in the end. She seized Khal by his upper arm and hauled him to his feet. "Up. Get up! More will come." She would thank him later, if he was lucky, right now they had bigger problems. Problems that clanked and whined down the main street. Keeping a firm grip on his arm to support him, she relieved him of the shotgun, rattling off another EMP round as the second group rounded the corner. "Down there!" She pushed him towards a side alley.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

Underlayers lined with armorweave and that organic material the Yuuzhan Vong provided for Titan Industries, cloakers they called them he thought, those two things were the only things that had kept him alive. Blasters ain’t no joke, was the reason why he employed them so much- point was, without those two materials giving him some insolations he would have had two holes where those shots had entered.

Now they were just big bruises that made this slightly excellent day into a slightly, very annoying day. But you couldn’t have everything going for you in life, sometimes you just had to take the good with the bad, or the bad with the good. Point was, there was still a wide city they could claim.

If they weren’t killed by more droids.

Man, the girl had a good shot. He wasn’t even thinking about the lack of a ‘thank you’, didn’t even enter his mind, as Khal took out the Tenloss Ambassador. Ain’t not targets yet, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be there soon.

 

[Simone]

"So much for the defenses being offline." She grumbled, taking the lead as she weaved through back alleys of the station and out of sight of the incoming droids. They'd track them easy enough, no doubt this place was rigged with cameras and sensors. What Simone wanted to know, was how and who.

"Either someone is already in the mainframe, or someone has remote access. I'm gonna go for the latter, because why leave it so long before activating defenses? So who? Who has remote access?" A droid cut across her path, almost colliding with her as it stepped from another alley. Simone was too slow, too absorbed in her rambling thoughts to react as it seized her by the throat and slammed her against the corner of the nearest wall, raising its weapon to Khal and opening fire.

"Intruders located."

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Simone"]

Khal was wounded, hurting and cursing. But that didn’t make him any less a threat when it came to some second-grade nonsense droid that was popping up from nowhere, didn’t take me half a beat to snatch another blaster from my side and starting to shoot into the piece of junk. The thing was wasted in five seconds and Khal could resume grunting in pain, buckling his knees into the ground.

‘Pay fething attention next time, I am dying here.’ Malvern said, hushedly and with great pain. He probably wasn’t really dying and he probably knew it too. But if there was one thing Khal liked to do was giving Simone shet for everything that happened.

Kinda the same in reverse, so it was karmic revenge on a cosmic scale.

‘You are the slicer expert here, I will try having your back, you figure out who and what.’