Lending a hand to a friend/enemy in need

[Verd Skirata]

Verd liked to check the bounty board in his free time, not because he accepted missions or made any money, but because he got to find out who had pissed major corporations off. As he opened the list up on his datapad, he looked at the list and saw a bounty tagged by the Red Ravens at the top. This looks interesting. Verd thought as he opened the file. He did a doubletake as he read the name that was posted. [member="Tmoxin Temi"]. He looked at the price on her head, 300k. That is really steep, but If they actually wanted her, they should have asked for more. He knew how tricky and manipulative she could be. He still thought she was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. He knew that she would have arranged for many places to hide, but might not be able to hide from the ravens for too long. He had the secret base his ancestors had built as their hideaway from the empire ages ago. He had put quite a bit of effort into fixing the place up, and keeping it nice and neat. in face every few months he would spend a couple days fixing the place up. It even had an underground hangar that had been created a hundred or so years ago by his father. If she truly wanted to not be found, then the forests of mandalore would be an ideal solution.

He dug through his footlocker to find, "Aha!" He exclaimed. He pulled out the communicator that was linked to the one he had given Temi not too long ago. He hoped she would still have it somewhere she could reach. It was only a hope though. He started to press the button to call, but then paused, he had to think about what he would say. He had to get her to trust him and 'I saw you have a huge bounty on your head' wasn't going to do that. He would just have to wing it. Pushing the button, he waited for her response.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Location: Coruscant, luxury high-rise on the outskirts of the Senate District

Tmoxin Temi sat back on her long, leather sectional sofa, shoes off and feet up on the custom made Laroon wood coffee table. She was sipping a glass of Smuggler's Red and was on a holocall with her lawyer Max Rumor. She told the giant pink Cathar about her escape from Nar Shaddaa the night she ran away with the funds she misappropriated from her former employers, The Red Ravens. He chuckled at her brazenness now but he remembered how the night she came to him for advice she was not so bold. In fact she had seemed downright scared and for a predator like him, he had to weigh his instinct against his judgement and not make her into a meal.

"So now what, Ms. Temi?" asked Max, buffing his long claws with a dagger-sized nail file.

"Now I have to stay hidden like some common smuggler."

"Why in hiding? I thought your debt had been settled?"

She bit her lip and looked down into her wine glass, swirling it. "My bounty is a million credits."
If The Cathar had been drinking whiskey, he would have spit it out. Instead he sucked in his breath and let out a long, low whistle.

"Don't get any ideas, Mr. Rumor," she laughed. "Besides I've got your law firm on a rather generous retainer lest you forget."

"Yes, you do," he said, nodding his head, his slitted yellow eyes closing for a beat. So far the carnivorous feline hadn't given any hints at all that he was willing to sell her out to any hunters , although occasionally she got the feeling that he wouldn't mind nibbling on her arm as though it was a well-done bantha burger.

Suddenly she heard an unfamiliar noise coming from the main console in her apartment. She looked over and saw the relentless beeping was a signal from the commlink that Prudii of the Rebel Alliance had given her when he accompanied her to Hapes so she could reconnect with her brother. Ever since that trip, she had kept the link and then installed it right into the panel of the private console in her apartment just in case Prudii wanted to get in touch with her. Basically the Mandalorian was her only lifeline to her brother and even though she remained estranged from Armand she wanted to make sure that she had at least one way she could reach him in case of an emergency.

Her manicured hand lingered over the answer button for a moment and then she pressed it. "Hello? Prudii?"

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"bid gar cuyir su oyayc,(So you're still alive, typical mando greeting) Good." Verd said, mostly to himself. "I Just saw how much you have pissed off the ravens." Verd said, hoping he didn't come across as a bounty hunter might, overexcited. "Are you in a safe position for now?" He asked hoping she wouldn't be in any immediate danger, He knew he shouldn't ask her where she was, and the tracker he had equipped the device with only transmitted within the same system. He had to sound concerned for her well being if he stood a chance of even seeing her, other than the files the ravens had on her. He had to build up to asking [member="Tmoxin Temi"] to meet up with him to take her to his safehouse. "Do you have any safe houses that the ravens don't and won't know about?" He asked perhaps sounding a little too concerned to be just a friend.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin smiled when she heard Prudii's voice on the line. She was suddenly filled with a longing for Hapes and for her family but quickly pushed the homesick feeling away. No good will come of that kind of emotion, she thought.

"I'm safe in my apartment," she answered. "The security system is state-of-the-art and I have a bunch of droids doing what the Maker only knows around here." It was true - her Mirari Bodyguard droids were scattered around the loft, mostly standing at attention and awaiting any threat to her life. "But honestly if you were to come find me right now, you would have to stand in a long line of those outside my door who would like to see me dead." She held up a finger even though he couldn't see her. "One moment, Prudii. I need to end this holocall with my lawyer."

The Hapan officer walked over to the holounit on her coffee table, said farewell to Max Rumor and then sat back down on the couch. She picked up a remote control and could now hear the Mando's voice across her apartment. This way she could relax with her glass of wine.

"I guess I have a few choices for a safe house," she said toying with the rim of the glass. "But I hate being trapped like a womp rat in this high rise." Her voice rose angrily. "I won't be made a prisoner in my own home. I need to be out there!" Tmoxin motioned to the skyscrapers of Coruscant, the lights glittering in the dusk, lines of shuttles darting back and forth out of her window.

She resettled, sitting cross-legged on the sofa. He probably knew the question was coming:

"How is my brother?"

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"Your brother has taken up a leading role in the rebellion. and you know how stressful that can be." Verd replied. "but from when I last talked to him, he was doing good." He paused. "So you are just sitting there in your own house, as if nothing had happened?" He said incredulously. "I bet right now, your probably just sitting back on your sofa drinking some of your best wine from your finest goblets." He said, not knowing if he was actually right. "You know, I have been thinking, you can call me Verd, that's my name." He stopped as if to think himself. "Well if you don't want to be couped up, then I think I might know just the place for you to go. You see, My family has had a safehouse that has been passed down through the generations, each generation contributing to it in some way. It is quite safe, and you can even walk freely in the woods, or even go to a decent sized town should you want to kill some time." Verd said, hoping to entice her, but also make her know what danger she was in. "You really ought to bug out of town for a while, and lay low. I am just a couple systems away from Coruscant, and could be there in a matter of hours if you feel like going there." He added the last part to show that he cared enough to rush to where she was in order to pick her up in a non suspicious ship. He had a couple ships that he could send to get her, so that her leaving would be virtually untrackable, though he hadn't mentioned that fact yet. He really just wanted a chance to see her again. "Think about it [member="Tmoxin Temi"], the safe house has all the commodities you could want, while still being unseen in the galaxy, and a lot more freedom than most." Verd decided he would stop talking at that point, knowing that he had gone from looking out for the woman to being seemingly obsessive with getting her to go with him. He had never lied to her before, and had always treeted her with as much respect as he knew how, but this was different. He was genuinely scared and concerned for Temi's safety.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

So her brother was in some kind of leadership position in the Rebel Alliance. Funny as far as she could remember, Armand was never a leader at anything, she scoffed to herself, but he always had a meager spark of ambition in there somewhere.

“Of course I’m sitting here,” she laughed. “Why should I be afraid? I have friends and protection.” Although lately her friends had avoided her, not wanting to be the unintended target of a sniper’s bullet.

His name was Verd. When she was done with the call, she planned to gather some intelligence on the name. Even a first name, an alliance and a contact like her brother may be enough to track the real identity of Prudii. When Verd described his safe house, well it did sound like a welcome proposition. It had been ages since she had breathed in air that wasn’t either polluted by smog or clouded with smoke and dust from a post-battle demolition.

“It sounds rather nice,” she said softly. Of course, in the back of her mind she thought Verd could be setting a trap but so far the Mandalorian had more chances to kill her than most and each time he let her go free. It was almost as if the thought had not even crossed his mind. But then again, everyone has their price, the Hapan officer thought. Even my brother’s bleeding heart can be bought and sold, she mused thinking back to the bio-tech machine he developed from a stolen blueprint.

“I’ve already put your life in danger a couple of times already. I’m not sure I can have it on my conscious if anything happened to you,” Tmoxin said. And this was true for the most part. She felt a strange sense of loyalty to Verd/Prudii from all they had been through.

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"The so called friends you have are more than likely keeping their distance, just because they know you are a target, and their life would be at risk if they risked being with you." Verd stated, reasoning with her to try to prove his point. Once again, he wasn't sure if he was actually correct or not, but knowing her current company and affiliation, the odds were stacked in his favor. Listening to [member="Tmoxin Temi"] try to blame her unwillingness on her sentimentality for him was the first time he realized that she might actually care for him. Maybe not as strong as love, but she definitely cared. "Well I didn't know you cared about my head so much, even when yours is the head that is actually on the line." He commented hoping to knock some sense into her. Of course he wouldn't leave a trail that lead back to him. He had already sent a droid with a extremely large sum of credits to rent an AP-89 Crux-Class Heavy Freighter which was a decently armed, yet fast transport ship. The company he was renting the ship from would receive a sum of credits twice what the actual ship costed to give him the ship, no questions asked, and would cover for him by stating that the ship was stolen. in return, He promised to return the ship by activating a tracking beacon that he had with him, and would send another droid to deliver the reciever. of course she didn't know that he would cover his bases so well, so he might have to explain that he wasn't stupid, and could handle himself. "Tmoxin, I know that you haven't really gotten to know me very well, but I do know how to cover my tracks. and should someone find out about this little interaction between us, I know how to handle myself." He paused to let her think about the proposition, thinking to himself as well. He had never properly introduced himself to her. and the fact that he had told her his first name, didn't mean she could trust him. Not even him saying his full name would make her trust him, But it would make searching for his legal information, and a breif biography much easier. "I'll tell you what. Before you make any decisions, Search for Verd Skirata, of the clan Skirata, I was born and raised on Mandalore. If that isn't enough information to look me up and do a decent background check, let me know and I will provide you with any Info you need to make an educated decision on wether or not to trust me." He would have never told her any of this, even just his real full name, if he hadn't trusted her and meant to help her out of this mess. If he made good on the bounty now, then the ravens would know everything there was to know about him, and he didn't want that to happen. EVER. he only hoped Temi saw it that way.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

"Verd Skirata," she said, repeating his name, although in her head, she still thought of him as Prudii. It would take awhile to get used to the change. And he certainly was forthcoming about everything - his identify, his safe house, his family. But for Tmoxin, her bravado was not enough to warrant an escape from Coruscant. Paranoia was consuming her like the gulag plague. Just in the last two days, her bodyguard droids had neutralized two amateur hunters that tried to pick her off while she was shopping in the luxury district. If she set foot near the Underworld, much less off-planet where pirates, smugglers and the Galatic Republic commanded the skies, she was just asking to be hung, drawn and quartered. In addition to her Red Raven bounty, she had been leading a siege on the planet of Ashera and could assuredly add "war crimes" to her list of transgressions.

"I agree," she continued. "I will check your background out and if I can sufficiently trust you, than I recommend you come here to Coruscant where I can control the security parameters. That's only fair, don't you think?"

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"I already have the coordinates set. Don't tell me any more info on your whereabouts. I am not sure this line will be safe too much longer." Verd said, honestly not knowing if it was or not. he had encrypted the device with a new code that to his knowledge he had just invented. "You need to destroy the device [member="Tmoxin Temi"], because it has an intersystem tracker." He wanted her to know the reason behind his reasoning. He would find a different way to get in touch with her later after he had arrived. "I will be in touch shortly though." He said just to let her know he meant what he had said.

Several hours later he was halfway to his destination, and no closer to figuring out a plan as to how to contact her. He would definately need to think of something though. Racking his brain for a solution to the problem at hand, he decided that a Mandalorian walking through a luxury district on Coruscant would immediately draw attention his way. He would have to be more subtle, and in this case, subtle meant he would have to dress like a billionare. He sighed thinking, Sometimes I hate this Job. He walked to his small closet, after removing his armor, picked out a pair of black slacks that had been tailored specifically for those people who wanted to remain armed with a decent blaster. The holster was in the back of the pants. He then picked out a red dress shirt, and black sportscoat which had been tailored to hold 2 grenades. He would probably end up grabbing a flashbang and a smoke grenade. He placed a nine foot coil of detonite tape and the detonator in his interior pocket in case he had to make a hasty exit. he then proceeded to comb his hair back, and dawned a fedora to top it off. he would rather have his hud, but in a pinch, the fedora had a commlink inside of it that given the correct phrase in the correct voice, his ship would come flying for him. He walked back to his small armory and grabbed a holdout blaster tucking it in his left inside pocket of the jackey. He also grabbed a DC15s which he holstered out of sight in the holster on the small of his back. grabbing two of the grenades he clipped them into place. Though he wasn't armored he would still be a force to be reckoned with. He also grabbed 2 of the Viola coats he had in his armory and put them into a small breifcase, in case the need for armor of somekind was needed. Completing his look with a pair of aviators that were mirrored to give him a view of behind him, that would go with his disguise as he would be arriving in the morning, he went back to the cockpit of his ship.

When he dropped out of hyperspace he used his technology to find out where Temi could be. It took him about 30 minutes to gain access to couroscant's security mainfraime and have his ship run through the footage of last month's activity in search of Miss Temi's face. After he found the first video recording of her landing, he had his ship follow her immensely difficult series of swapped arispeeders and out of the way turns that only a very paranoid person trying to be missed would take. Eventually, he found footage of her entering a luxury appartment. Looking at his chrono, it had taken his ship only 45 minutes to find her. He landed at the nearest landing pad to him, and called in a airtaxi to take him about a kilometer from the appartment she lived in and then paused to think about what he was doing, looking around at his surroundings, he had spotted more than a few droids that though they looked like protocol droids, he had seen before. Heavily armed bodyguard droids like these could only mean he was in the right place. he walked up to one of these droids and asked, "Is there any chance you would be able to deliver a message to a Miss Tmoxin Temi?" He looked at the droid, hoping his inquiry would set off an alarm that Tmoxin would see. He continued, "I am an old friend, Verd Skirata? I have come hoping to call on her, though I am afraid she won't be expecting me."

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin sent the information that Verd Skirata had given her to Rumor, Wolf & Funk so the legal assistants could run a background check on the Mandalorian. Then she went over to her console panel and with a few touches on the keyboard, disabled the commlink as he instructed.

She the Hapan officer curled up on the sofa and watched the Face the Galaxy on HNN which was re-running the results on a Galactic Senate ruling. Eventually she fell asleep under a Mogo fur blanket, the bottle of wine on the table nearly empty. A buzz to her apartment woke her up.

“Commander Temi, you have a visitor named Verd Skirata,” said the protocol droid in charge of security.

Mother of Kwath had he come all this way through the night, she thought incredulously! She had to admire his determination at least. Or the thought that wouldn’t leave her mind – he was after her bounty. She quickly rose and checked her appearance in a mirror. Running her fingers through her hair to tame it and wiping a spot of red wine off of her blouse she finally felt presentable again.

“Droids be on alert for hostile actions,” she said, giving the Mirari bodyguards time to prepare. "Do not hesitate to fire at the slightest provocation."
And with a uniform clicking and clacking, they settled into battle-ready positions. Two of them would be flanking the door with blasters drawn as she waited for Skirta after letting security know to "send him up."

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd recieved an acknowledgement from the droid that he had talked to that [member="Tmoxin Temi"] was willing to talk to him. This was a good sign he thought as he walked at a slow pace towards her door. Walking up to the door as a droid opened it, he entered and saw Tmoxin sitting on her couch. "I feel like I should at least tell you that I am armed" he said, straightening his suit. He hoped this was a sign that would allow her to trust him. "Most of my armament is in my Sports coat, so I will remove it for your comfort." He pulled his coat off and held it out towards a droid, then reaching to the small of his back he said, "Pistol here as well." And removing it from the holster not taking his hand out from behind his back, he let it drop to the floor and then kicked it away. "Alright, I think that is everything." He paused for a moment to be sure, and then removed the Fedora and aviators. "Sorry to come so soon and unexpectedly, I did say I would contact you though, and this did seem like the best way to do so." He said, and suddenly upon the arrival, he realized that he had been awake for almost a full 36 standard galactic hours and yawned. "Is there any chance you might have some caf on hand? I seem to be a little more worn out than I had anticipated." He smiled,seeing her again made him quite happy, and he didn't understand why. She seemed like the sort of person that he could just admire for hours or even days on end. But that wasn't the reason he was here. He had come to make certain she was safe.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

When Verd Skirata announced the he was armed the droids, all pointed their blasters at him in unison. "Stand down," she said firmly to the Mirari bodyguards. She watched him open his overcoat and remove his weapons. The droids heads turned at every weapon that was removed and with their mechanical arms they plucked them off of the Mandalorian. When he kicked his pistol across the floor, a skittish droid shot at it and blew it to pieces. Tmoxin held hear ears for a moment as the blaster fire rang through her apartment and exhaled finally when Verd said, "I think that is everything."

She smirked when he asked for a stimcaf. "Yes, sit down and I'll have one brought out," she said, staying on the sofa and pressing a remote control so a service droid would bring out the beverage. She assumed Verd was unfamiliar with Hapan customs were the men served the women. Tmoxin wasn't used to being a suppliant any way shape or form. It wasn't in her DNA.

Commander Temi felt a little guilty that the droids still kept their blasters trained on her guest - that also wasn't the Hapan way - but it couldn't be helped in her situation. Once the service droid came out with the stimcaf and delivered it to Verd, she said, "So Mr. Skirata are you here to entertain me in my self-imposed house arrest? Why have you come so quickly may I ask?"

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"I am sorry to have come at such an inconvenient time, but I came to Coruscant to make certain that I would be close enough to come in case something happened." Verd said taking a seat in the farthest chair across the room so as to leave her confident that he wouldn't try anything. "I did say I would contact you soon, and after tapping into the surveilence servers of the security department of Coruscant, I had discovered footage of you making your way to this appartment." He hoped to get her attention with this, and reaching out his hand for the caf the serving droid brought out for him, he took a sip before continuing. "I have removed the files for you, and they are on a data chip in the breifcase over there on the floor, along with two Viola Coats." He said hoping she had kept up to date with the technology on the market. These were standard rebellion issue, fortunately, and he was glad that he had them, as not having his unlimited supply of ammunition would make surviving a conflict much harder. "The footage no longer exists in their mainframe, and There is another encrypted commlink in the case as well." Verd had hoped that by now she would have at least had some results from her background check on him. He thanked her for the caf and took another sip, then said. "I figured you might have something back from your sources on me to be quite honest." Verd said, trying to keep the mood light. He looked at the positioning of the droids, who had come fairly close to him and were holding their blasters well within his reach. He could easily have fought his way out of this appartment should he find a need to, but he wasn't here to run away from [member="Tmoxin Temi"], but rather to be helping her. He tried to remember all that he had seen while he had walked towards Tmoxin's appartment from the airtaxi's landingpad. It seemed as though she had her fortress well guarded, but something felt, well... off. He wasn't sure what had caused the feeling he had, but something felt like it was about to go down, and soon too. He looked around, eyes scanning the interior of the apartment for anything that night have caused his bad feeling. After living as a soldier for his whole life, he learned to trust his instincts as they were rarely wrong. "Something seems off here." He said, as a warning to Tmoxin, and voicing his suspicions seemed like a decent way to let her know that she might be in slight danger. He had recently learned that he was a force sensitive, and that told him that his feelings were more often than not precognitive senses. He hoped she would take his warning seriously, and believe that he wasn't behind whatever might happen. He readied himself for conflict even though whatever was out there, wasn't visible to him yet.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

As Verd Skirata explained his intentions, the serving droid who procured his stimcaf began to clean up pieces of the blaster which was shot up by the Mirari droid. When he first admitted that he tracked her and had security footage of her going about her business, Tmoxin was a bit unsettled but it made sense when he said he destroyed that footage. He was trying to protect her.

“My background check hasn’t yielded anything yet,” she said, checking her datapad. It was late after all and her lawyers on Nar Shaddaa were probably asleep by now.

When he said, “Something seems off here” she responded with an amused laugh: “The only thing that seems off here is that I actually let you inside my apartment. But… I trust your senses are sharp.” Still on the couch with the fur blanket on her lap, she looked around her apartment warily and then turned back to face him and sighed, feeling exhausted all of a sudden. The tension and anxiety of staying on the highest alert all day had drained her. But here in front of her was an ally, someone offering her a lifeline of help even if they were technically enemies. And as usual “help” was an extremely fluid concept in the Commander’s mind.

She appraised Verd with her large brown eyes. How far was he willing to go to assist her?

“The reason I did let you up tonight was to ask you a favor. I want you to be my eyes and ears for my brother’s activities. And before you refuse, just consider that I don’t want or need tactical information about the Rebels. I only want to know personal information,” she said. "For my family's sake."

Of course this wasn’t the first time she would test Verd’s loyalty and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. She looked at his face for signs that he was believing her deception.

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

Verd smiled slightly at the thought of being able to communicate with her on a more frequent basis. "Of course I'll keep tabs for you on matters that involve your brother on a personal level." He paused to think for a moment as the alarms in his mind were tripped. Setting down his caf, he felt as he did when one of his best friend's had been shot with a sniper in battle. It was a few seconds before the actual firing of such a rifle, that he started to feel the adrenaline rush into him. He looked out of the window, and scanned the surrounding buildings, noticed a small person on top of a building. Time seemed to slow down for him as he reached for one of the droid's blasters, knowing he couldn't have them shooting him before he reached her, ripped it out of its grasp and flung the droid into it's counterpart, then dropped the weapon. it looked as if everything was moving in slow motion, he saw a flash from the speck and he sprinted forward, and jumped in front of the where the bolt would go, not knowing if he had estimated correctly as time sped back up, until he felt the explosion of pain erupt in his left shoulder. immediately, he knew he would need a good week's application of bacta to heal the damage. "Sorry I didn't have enough time to warn you about that. I just saw the flash and did whatever I could to prevent it from hitting you." He looked to where he saw the figure on a building, almost a kilometer away, and didn't see whoever it was that fired such a shot. after a few seconds, he stood up, and walked a short distance away from [member="Tmoxin Temi"] to make sure he didn't look like a threat to her safety when they were finally back on their feet. He looked at the burn wound his shoulder had suffered, it was still glowing orange, but he didn't dare show any weakness in front of Tmoxin. He held both his hands up in the air and even though it was painful, he kept them there biting his tongue to keep from wincing. It would be up to Tmoxin to decide wether or not to allow her droids to shoot him, because he attacked them, their programming now stated he was an enemy, and must be eliminated.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin smiled when Verd agreed to track her brother. Now to figure out where to place the surveillance device. In his office? No, she was hoping somewhere in a Rebel stronghold. Maybe…

All of a sudden Verd attacked the droids and she heard a shot ringing out. There was glass breaking in the background somewhere. The other droids in the apartment aimed their blasters towards the Mandalorian and Commander Temi quickly realized what was happening. “HOLD YOUR FIRE!” she screamed at her android bodyguards. Verd Skirata had flung himself in front of a sniper’s bullet which had just sailed through her window.

“That’s it,” she said shooting up from the sofa. “A med pac is in the refresher,” she said curtly and went into her bedroom. Tmoxin Temi threw a bunch of random clothes, underwear, credits and jewelry into a suitcase, closed it tightly and locked it. She was frazzled, her body spent from the endless worry over her safety. Skirata was right – she was not safe on Coruscant. With her high-rise's proximity to the Underworld, it was as if she was inviting a revolving door of criminals and thugs into her home on a daily basis.

“Are you done dressing your wound?” she asked him as though addressing one of her soldiers. “We’re getting out of here now. I don’t care where we go but we can’t stay here. Obviously.”

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

"Yeah, I did as much as I could with what is here." He said hopeful that he had gained her trust. "Do you have a spare blaster pistol with a decent ammo capacity? Verd said, knowing she would have one. While he was in the refresher, he quickly hacked into a datapad that was lying on the counter and used it to tell the droid flying the rented ship to the nearest hanger to where they were at. then reformatted the pad restoring it to factory default settings. "There are two trench coats in the breifcase, Before we leavee put one on, as they are almost blaster proof against most blaster rifles." Verd told her before walking out of the refresher room. He was glad that the wound was just from an energy projectile weapon, cauterizing the impact point. He would do more with it when he reached the hideout he had. Looking at [member="Tmoxin Temi"], he said " I'm sorry your day had to go like this, but I am also glad I came as quickly as I did." as he placed his sportscoat on, and then somehow managed to dawn the other trenchcoat as well. He wasn't going out without blaster protection no matter how ridiculous he might look, checking to make sure he had his holdout, grenades and rapid entry equipment, he placed his hat on his head and gave the codewords to his ship, which told it to fly to a remote planet, of a selection of 30, and wait there until he was able to find which planet it had flown to, or contacted the Z-6 flying it. " Are you ready?" he inquired, throwing the fedora down and crushing it with his boot to destroy the com device within it. "I will have a ship completely unaffiliated to me or you at the spaceport just north of here in five minutes, we can be there in 10." Verd told her knowing that the key to surviving another day was to leave as quickly as they could. right after the most recent attack. He looked at the droids, one of the droids had a smashed shoulder plate, and the other had a dent in its breast plate, both still fully functional, and he hoped they would stay that way.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin nodded when Verd asked if she had a spare blaster and she opened a drawer in the living room and pulled out a freshly cleaned blaster. Upon his instructions she removed a trench coat from the briefcase, of course looking curiously at what else was in there. It was too big for her and the sleeves draped off of her arms. Great, she would exit her apartment looking less like a glamorous Hapan officer and more like a sketchy flasher. All she needed to complete the look were some gold chronos to sell.

"Two droids come with us," she said and the closest Mirari bodyguards stepped forward. "The rest of you stay here, order a repair for that window and guard my apartment." She hoped the bodyguards were at least capable of calling a contractor to replace the broken glass. Before they left, their luggage and cases in tow, Commander Temi gave Verd another incredulous look and said, "What makes you so trusting of me, Verd? What makes you think you can turn your back for one minute..." she trailed off leaving him with the obvious implication. But then she gave an exhausted sigh and said, "I'm ready."

[member="Verd Skirata"]

 

[Verd Skirata]

He accepted the pistol, holstering it where his other one used to be, then watched as she pulled on the coat. It was funny to watch, he looked at his and then took it off. "Here, try this one, I think I actually accounted for the size difference, but wasn't sure which was which." He said as he held the other one out to her to trade. "If you were to turn on me, you would have done so by now, and wouldn't have allowed me into your apartment. If I really wanted to harm you, I could have easily taken out all of your droids, and had you in cuffs oh," He looked at his chrono, and saw that he had been here for 25 minutes. "24 minutes ago, or sooner." He knew that he could have easily tagged and bagged her for her bounty by now if that was the way he wanted to play it. She should know that now as well by the way he was able to easily defeat her droids in a matter of a split second if only to save her life. "Plus, if you turn on me, you loose the only chance you have of surviving another day, and the only being in the galaxy that is willing to put their life on the line to get you to safety. "Wait here, Im going out to scope out the walk to the airtaxi pad." He said and walked out the door. "If I am not back in 2 minutes, then I won't be alive." He said as he walked away from the closing door.

He ran through the sidewalks knowing that anyone who was running was often disreguarded as a threat to detection. He spotted one man on top of a building, and knew he would have trouble getting her out of the appartment. He walked to the nearest taxi and told the driver, "get out" and pointed the gun his way. "Leave the keys in the ignition, and I will pay you for the speeder later." He hopped in the driver's seat and pulled the speeder out of the spot and drove straight to Tmoxin's door. Hopping out, he looked at the sniper, because he no longer had a decent shot, he was forced to move, waisting valuable time and allowing Verd to get [member="Tmoxin Temi"] out and into the speeder. "He banged on the door and yelled, "Come on! Get out here and into the speeder!" He waited for the door to open, half expecting a slap in the face before she allowed him to escourt her to the vehicle.

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin just stared at Verd for a moment with the coldest brown eyes. But she didn't say anything else and in the lobby of her high-rise she waited for him. She expected her normal limousine service but here came the Mando back with in a beat-up taxi speeder waving her in. Verd banged on the door, startling her for a moment. She put her hand to her chest and muttered, "Don't scare me like that. Remember I was just shot at you know. I happen to be a little jumpy right now."

With the droids in tow, they crowded into the speeder which smelled vaguely like Rominaria flower and body odor. And for a sad moment if she had to choose between her life and luxury, she almost went with the latter. Commander Temi wasn't used to roughing it like this.

But rationale thoughts prevailed and she nearly curled up in the back of the taxi speeder, she was so tired. "Verd, I have an idea," she said softly from the back seat. "What if we found someone to be my decoy so I could get back to my apartment? Or find a new one... I guess." She yawned and leaned her head on one of the Mirari guards as though he were a pillow. "I know, what if we bought a red-headed slave... a woman who looks just like me." The wheels turned in her head, formulating her next plan to get back to her normal life back with her platoon. "There's a slave trader I can call," she continued pulling out her datapad.

[member="Verd Skirata"]