Mighty

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

They walked through the ship and Cerita did note the various trinkets lying around like it was some kind of decoration for her.

It was strange to see for a woman who was very organized and neat in her approach, but that was the sacrifice she had to make if she wanted to branch out her list of contacts and expand her network. Finally they arrived at the bay where the Tuk’ata put down the various crates and equipment, they looked around a bit, one of them wandered up to a box filled with some loose engine parts.

"You can try, female." Scarra growled while glaring at Runi. "Mistress, can I eat her?"

Sarova took one long look at Runi in response.

"She would give you indigestion, sweet. Besides, I am sure she didn’t mean it that way."

Ah, well, at least Scarra wasn’t licking his lips anymore about the girl. That was one less headache to worry about, Cerita didn’t wait to hear a response from either Scarra or Runi, though.

Instead after responding, she immediately smiled, turned around and left the bay, if they kids wanted to talk it out they could.

In the meanwhile she wanted to check out her room.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

“Pretty sure I did.”

Enclosed in such close proximity, three weeks could prove to be a proverbial jail sentence whilst sharing your ship with a practical stranger. And that was without four sithspawn being thrown into the mix. They made her skin crawl and her hand ache for the comforting weight of her blaster or the reassuring edge that her beskad provided.

The next three weeks would be interesting indeed. Kark, she’d be surprise if they even made it one week before they either tried to scarf her down or forced her to make good on her earlier threat to space them. Force knows she was tempted to try the moment they broke atmosphere.

Of course, she just had to go and shake Cerita’s hand and offer the green-skinned woman her word.

Such an act might not have meant much out here on the rim of civilisation. A place of thieves, swindlers and other assorted varieties of sentient refuse, the whole concept of honour wasn’t one that carried a whole lot of weight. It certainly wasn’t one that put food on the table. Yet it was one of the few things she had that was truly her own. And wasn’t that all kinds of depressing.

“You better buckle up, princess.” Runi called as she headed into the cockpit, pausing only briefly to flick the correct sequence of switches to bring the systems online before dropping heavily into the pilot’s seat. The Boracyk might have looked as threadbare as it name implied, but the sound the engines made as they flared into life left no doubt that she was well loved and maintained beneath surface of it all. They practically purred. “Unless you’ve got more surprises lined up, I aim to be hitting black inside of a few mins.”

There was a pause.

“Really not kidding about the buckling up, If set on staying in that room, you might notice that the grav compensator takes a few minutes to really kick in for that compartment. Your friends might want to hold on, too, I guess. Or don't.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

“You heard her, boys.” Her voice called out from her room, which prompted the tuk’ata to hunker down and grab hold of something… anything.

They were strong and had the inherent trait of stability, inheriting that from their days as darkside beasts of predatorism. They would always land back on their feet, so to speak. Sarova was curious if she could manipulate the aperion around her and stay stable that way.

She really wanted to try it out, but the woman had to admit that Midichlorian Manipulation might be a bit too far off for her at this point. Rave only accomplished it after already becoming one of the most exalted alchemists in the Galaxy and even then she had needed access to Ovmar’s treasure trove of knowledge.

Ah… the things she could do if she ever got her hands on one of his libraries.

The Things.

But alas, it wasn’t that time yet, so instead after one more look-around she left the room and settled herself down in a seat next to Runi in her… cockpit. It really wasn’t much to look at.

But what can ya do?

“How fast does your ship go?”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

“Fast enough.” Came her curt reply, sparing a brief glance for Cerita as she took the co-pilot chair.

It wasn't exactly true. The part about being fast enough. There was still a desperate need for improvement, on all fronts, before Runi would be completely satisfied with the browbeaten freighter. CEC were a household name for a reason, making the kind of tough and reliable ships you could stake your life on in a pinch, but they were always sort of middling when it came to their potential. It was only the after-market modifications that really brought their ships to life.

It would be another few long, credit draining year or so before the Boracyk began to even scratch the surface of what Runi had planned for it. Maybe longer if the Besadii continued to gouge her profit margins. She was a good earner, with a pretty solid rep on the salvaging circuit, but even she was struggling under the yoke of Kajidic and its debt collectors.

“Why, worried we won’t get there in time?” A soft snort, lost in the faint hum and whine as the ship ghosted out of the docking bay and started to begin its ascent. True to her word, the grav compensator fell a little short, the g-forces pushing back on her shoulders as they pitched into a climb. “Those vaults have been hidden since the time of the Old Republic. They ain’t going anywhere soon.”

If they even existed in the first place.

“Gonna be at least a day or two before we come close, though. Longer if you don’t have the permits to dig on the rock. Only way people earn a living out there is by charging aruetiise dumb enough to believe in the legend.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

A smirk was all she got at first.

“If there is one thing life has taught me it’s that legends have a core of truth in it most of the times.” The supply arrived a few moments later.

“Besides, we won’t be digging, if everything goes my way we will be sitting neatly in the shade and simply wait until the treasure comes to us.”

Metaphorically speaking, they would probably have to go and hike to the location of the treasure, but that was a moot point. But Alchemy underlined for Cerita that you just had to be creative enough and then almost everything was possible while pushing the boundaries of what nature had intended.

Case in point termites.

They ate wood, right? So why can’t you modify them to eat something else?

It was more complicated than that, of course. Regular termites wouldn’t do, no matter how much you modified them through bio-engineering or through Sith Alchemy, but the Galaxy was filled with strange analogues to species that were considered normal.

Took her a few months, a few interrogation sessions and some favors at the local Darkside Bazar until she finally came across the right sort of species that had the particular traits necessary.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]
​

There was a faint, derisive snort.

“And if there’s one thing this life has taught me, it’s that a lie can travel hallway across the galaxy before the truth has even got its boots on.”

The ship rumbled dangerously, prompting Runi to reach pass Cerita in order to flick a pair of switches on the co-pilot console, the second of which silencing the shrill warning alarm that sounded within moments of the first being disengaged.

“Way I see it, high chance Kakitai bel Toyouin was full of osik Making himself feel important by bragging about some legendary treasure no one seems to have ever seen.”

She lapsed into a comfortable silence, concentrating on the task of bringing the Boracyk through the atmospheric clouds and into the vacuum that lay beyond. It also gave her a moment or two to reflect on the woman’s remark, the salvager trying to wrap her head around what the green woman had meant exactly. How were they meant to dig for buried treasure without actually digging? She really should have screened her a little more thoroughly before accepting this job.

Trust Darn Poo to send a crackpot her way.

“Sounds more like a three week holiday than an expedition.” There was a pause, her gaze shifting from the view screen before them, brow arching. “This is an expedition, ‘lek? Not you trying to fill a gap in your holiday plans ‘cause your guy ran out on you last minute.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"] brushed past her to manipulate a few switches on her side of the cockpit. This evocated a raise of her eyebrows in response, she could have just asked her to flip the only two switches on this side of the cockpit… oh, dear, this one had complimented her vaguely on her looks.

What was it with humans and their need for touchy-touchy feelings?

Her suspicion was more or less underlined when Verin subtly mentioned the possibility of a ‘man’ in the game. Very subtle, yes, but it did draw out the roll of the eyes.

“If you want to know whether I am single you can just ask it straight, Verin.” Preceded by a snort, followed by a shake of the head.

“You got a pretty face, so maybe once we are not busy with trying to uncover a treasure that will set us up for the next couple of lifetimes, we can discuss your needs.”

Maybe she would even enjoy it, though that was a stretch.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]
​

There was practically an audible roll of her eyes as Runi continued to prep her ship for the jump to lightspeed, an act that mostly revolved around disabling various alarms in concert with activating systems. The various salvaged components that made up the tramp freighter didn’t interact well with each other by choice, a feeling the young Mandalorian was currently appreciating at all new levels the longer she talked to Cerita.

She certainly had a high opinion of herself.

“Hard pass.” Runi responded as the Boracyk broke through the last remaining vestiges of atmosphere, the turbulence abruptly vanishing as they entered open space. “Hate to break it to you, cheeka, but the only needs of mine you should be concerning yourself with lie solely with your creds.”

Not to mention there was a golden rule about never mixing business with pleasure. Not that she expected much in the way of the latter from Cerita. She was pleasing to the eye certainly, but she was more akin to an ice sculpture than woman. Pretty from a distance, cold and frigid up close. Neither were qualities that interested Runi when looking for a prospective distraction.

“As long as you deliver them on time, you can consider me satisfied.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

“Of course, of course. Whatever makes you feel better, cheeka.”

She was already picking up on specific speech patterns in Verin’s conversation.

It would still be a few days before she was able to completely figure out what made the girl tick, but it was becoming increasingly more clear that the brunette enjoyed using words like ‘cheeka’ and whatever else kind of hogwash these urbanized kids came up with these days, to distance herself from a situation and/or person.

Probably trust-issues or a jaded view on humanity courtesy to her upbringing.

How sad.

Cerita leaned into her own seat, crossing one leg over the other and curiously studied Outer Space outside of the ship. It was strange how easy and comfortable they got about that great empty void.

Just showed that sentients had great capacity when it came to molding themselves to new situations.

 

[Runi Verin]

Cheeka.

A slow smirk blossomed into view as Runi continued to set the ship up for the short jump to the Tartaglia system. She might have avoided butchering the pronunciation like most, but it suddenly became apparent to the salvager that Cerita, for all her hoity-toity mannerisms, didn’t seem to understand a lick of Huttese. Something that was practically unheard of on the Outer Rim. Out here you couldn’t go a handful of light years in any direction without at least picking up a smidgeon of the language in some spaceport or trade stop.

Kark, judging from the uncomfortable look of disdain she had worn back in the cantina, Runi was willing to bet she spent most of her life either close to the core or otherwise extremely sheltered from the frontier. Perhaps she’d hit the nail on the head with that princess remark earlier. Regardless, [member="Cerita Sarova"] was in for one heck of a rude awakening. One Runi wouldn’t mind getting a front row seat for.

“We just covered this. It’s credits. Credits make me feel better.” A faint hum filled the cockpit as the hyperdrive finished spooling up, its tune becoming drawn out and repetitive as it waited to be unleashed. “But hey, if this job actually pans out, I’ll buy you a nice cabana boy on Zeltros. Get your own needs squared away, ‘lek?”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

"How generous of you." Sarova responded after a moment or so. Those green eyes were still on the empty void of space, though. It just seemed so vast and dark and mysterious, it made even her feel a little bit small in comparison.

"But no, thank you."

She shifted her head, smirk appearing.

"Good news for you, though. Now you will have the money to buy two cabana boys on Zeltros."

Why anyone would want to buy boys on a world that was known for its unending orgies, was beyond her. But if that was where Verin’s tastes ran that was completely her business.

And Cerita wouldn’t pry… much.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]​

“If this job works out like you think it will, I could probably by half of Zeltros.”
Not that she would. As much as she admired their ability to simply cut loose, she found there was something inherently unsavoury about the Zeltron race as a whole. Or any race that possessed similar abilities, really. You never knew just what they were doing with those pheromones. There were enough things in this life willing to mess with your head without them adding kindling to the already stacked fire.

“Haran, I could probably buy the good half of Corellia right now and have change to spare.” A tasteless joke, even for her. She had seen first-hand the destruction that had been brought down both on the planet and its people, many now in diaspora. Brokellia was fitting on more than one level. She buried the thoughts behind the wall, instead completing her jump calculations and reaching for the lever to finally kick them free of this system. “Hold on to something.”

The stars seemed to tense for a split second as the hyperdrive was finally unleashed upon them, a pregnant pause that abruptly gave way to them turning into streaks of white light that in turn followed with the familiar, enchanting blues of hyperspace. They said you could lose yourself if you stared into the ceaselessly swirling for too long. If that was true, Runi was well and truly lost years ago, now only finding it oddly restive. A worry for another day.

“You might want to catch some shut eye.” She suggested as she slid down her seat, boots propping up on the console as she settled in to get more comfortable. “It’s going to be a few hours before we arrive. I’ll can call you when we revert.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Interestingly enough Sarova’s mind worked similarly to that of the Falleen species - a byproduct of being a mostly alchemical creation and clone, maybe an added benefit of Rave and the Kaminoan scientist’s meddling during the clone process or something entirely else, she didn’t know.

But what she did know was that her mind was highly resistant against the effects of… for a lack of a better word ‘drifting off’ into the void. Cerita could observe the lattices of a hypergem or study the stars during hyperspace travel… with effort, without growing insane.

“It’s fine.” The woman responded, before similarly making herself comfortable or as comfortable as could be in a chair such as this one. Her eyes didn’t drift off the stars though.

“I like to watch them while drifting off.”

This was a strange comment coming from Cerita, but she didn’t seem to notice the oddity with her attention to the stars. It was one of the first genuine remarks made by her without being guarded.

Perhaps she wasn't all icy cold Queen Bee.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]​

“There’s a view port in the cabin, but suit yourself, I guess.” Runi replied, giving a half-hearted roll of her shoulders by way of a shrug. Not that Cerita was paying her the least bit of attention to see the gesture, seemingly otherwise preoccupied with being enthralled with the endless depths of hyperspace. In truth the salvager didn’t mind the company, even if it was presently absent, that the other woman provided. Short jaunts through hyperspace like this tended to be tedious affairs.

Case in point.

“If you’re gonna ride shotgun the whole way though,” she spoke up a few minutes later, breaking the silence that had settled in over the cockpit. “You at least gotta make it worthwhile. Tell me about these vaults and why you’re oh-so-sure we’ll be the ones to succeed where…”

She paused, lips pursing as she tried to make an uneducated guess, seeming to fail miserably either way she cut it. "Kark, I can’t even do the math on how many peedunky stoopa prospectors have tried cracking that rock. M’surprised the whole planet hasn’t split in two by now. Ain't for lack of effort, that's for sure.”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

She shifted her body slightly, one leg crossed over the other and most of her attention was still focused on the stars. It was therapeutic for her, allowed her to shut down most of her brain and let the mind just drift without having to worry about one problem or the other.

Really, it was during these kind of moments that her creativity worked the best.

“A metric feth-ton.” The girl supplied, still absent-mindedly, but helpful and perhaps more relaxed than she usually was.

In all honestly Sarova wasn’t always an Ice Queen.

It was the image and facade she projected when doing business with those that she did not know or trusted fully. But when her attention slipped, when she was doing other things… a different Cerita popped up. Just briefly, of course, but it was a hint that she might not be completely sociopathic.

Just mildly.

“And as for your why.” Sarova broke away from the stars and met Runi’s eyeing, which she acknowledged with a nod. “I am a scientist. When coming across these legends I studied them at length and finally came up with an idea which will minimize the amount of work we will need to do and maximize the chance of us finding the vaults, if they are here.”

“As for how.”

Which was obviously the next question on her lips.

“I genetically engineered a creature which is able to tunnel through sand with the same ease as termites disintegrate wood, which utilizes echolocation to find its way around and has integrated cybernetics that will send imagery back to us.”

A shrug came next. “I doubt the scavengers of this Galaxy thought about that particular solution to their problem.”

[member="Runi Verin"]

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

As often when the evil scientist lays out their diabolical or nefarious plan, there was an understandably lengthy pause after Cerita wrapped up her explanation. In truth, it wasn’t so much what she had said, but matter of fact way she’d delivered it in. As if genetically engineering an entire new species and shoving it full of cybernetics was an everyday occurrence. Runi had taken the tuk’ata following in the woman’s wake as the more dangerous of the two, but now she was wondering if the reverse was true. Certainly explained how easily she seemed to keep them in line.

Kark, she was sitting next to a budding Demagol.

“If you can do all…” Her mouth twisted as she groped for an adequate word, only to fall short in all languages she spoke fluently. No mean feat considering one of those was Huttese, a language pretty much built around describing some sort of atrocity or crime against sentient life. “That… why did you need me? You got resources like that at your disposal, I’m figuring you could’ve hired all number of people to ferry you, no questions asked.”

She shifted in her seat, her boots dropping back to the decking as she sat up a little straighter, her attention solely fixed on the woman beside her now. She wasn’t quite at the reach-for-your-blaster stage of the conversation, but as the second question hit her, she felt that it wasn’t far off depending on the answer received. “Who really pointed you in my direction? ‘cause it sure as kark wasn’t Poo. A job like this, he wouldn’t have been able to keep his greasy mitts off. An’ I have a feeling you an’ the rest of the underground don’t exactly run in the same circles, ‘lek? ”

 

[Jairus Starvald]

Smart girl.

Very smart girl, in fact.

In all honesty Sarova had already started to lose hope when it came to this girl already. But as she noticed the gears churning behind that pretty face, the realization dawning on her that the choice in pilots was not a coincidence at all… well, that was when she knew that perhaps this wasn’t completely hopeless.

"Oh, no. Poo did point me in your direction." Not that the hapless pilot had been made aware of the stakes of this mission or the resources at her disposal. "But you do deserve a more elaborate answer, now that we are more acquainted."

Her attention shifted then.

Away from the beautiful and mesmerizing stars, body shifting and leaning lazily to accommodate her comfortably meeting Runi’s questioning gaze.

"Isley Verd." She simply said at first. That was where the direct connection to Verin, was it not? "One of the many apprentices my Master has trained, before her disappearance. I have kept tabs on most of them - what they are up to, how their experience in the arts measures comparatively, things like that."

"He’s been fairly… busy, I suppose. At any rate, the mention of a woman who was less than impressed with him, strong-willed and with a desire to make her fortune on her own terms?"

A shrug followed.

"Reminded me of myself once upon a time. So I decided to give you the opportunity to break away from your debts and other nonsense, an opportunity to find your own potential."

[member="Runi Verin"]

 

[Runi Verin]

Isley Verd.

Although she knew that the ship’s atmospheric controls had not shifted, indeed they were one of the few reliable systems on the Boracyk, the cabin suddenly felt a damn sight colder. As if the mere mention of that man’s name had dropped the temperature by several degrees.

Isley Karking Verd.

Her expression darkened and turned brittle, those brown eyes trying to bore through the hidden secrets of the woman before her. It seemed that, even so far removed from the barest hints of orderly civilisation the Mandalorian empire hard carved out for themselves, she could not escape that man’s shadow. A man that had laid to claim countless titles, yet still sought to add one more to his already burgeoning collection if she would but allow it. Becoming in the process the primary reason why she had placed an almost entire galaxy between them these last few weeks.

Yet it seemed she hadn't hidden well enough if people like [member="Cerita Sarova"] were finding her so easily.

“I hate to break it to you, cheeka, but I ain’t nothing like my…” There was second drawn out pause in as many minutes coupled with a bitter curl of a lip, the last word hanging empty in the space between them before she sought to redact it from the conversation entirely. “I ain’t nothing like that man, in any shape or form. If that’s what you’ve come after, I can drop you off at the nearest habitable rock and see you to hitching a ride to Echoy’la. Force knows you’ll find plenty of his cast off spawn that’d fit the bill nicely there.”

The shook her head and turned her attention back to the swirling blue miasma of hyperspace.

“Otherwise, my price is now double. As you said. I desire to make my own fortune.”

​

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Runi Verin"]

"Of course, of course." Ceri responded patiently, before returning to her more lazily prone form and the study of stars. In truth money didn’t really do much for her.

Oh, she understood the factual worth it possessed it its many forms, but at the end of the day it was a commodity whose value completely depended on the opinions of others and that was something she could not abide by. The only commodity she cared about was knowledge, knowledge in its many forms and splendors.

Ceri probably wouldn’t have been here in the first place if it weren’t for the fact that she simply needed the money for the plans still formulating themselves in her mind.

A part of her - the part that was cold calculation, observation and simple remark - wanted to mention that Runi’s desire for cash, clearly followed the same trend as Isley’s journey. From money to personal power to titles to artifact and ships and hoarding, so much hoarding. They all had their rationalizations, of course, they always did.

But it did not seem like the daughter was very far off from the father in this instance.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Cerita Sarova"]

“Fine, then.”

In truth, Runi hadn’t expected Cerita to fold quite so easily. She had expected at least some minor opposition or attempt to haggle her down to maybe an extra thirty or forty percent cut in the salvage rights. Such an easy and unopposed victory only brought forth a sour taste to her mouth and a lingering question of just how much she could have pressed for.

Still the credits ultimately meant very little to her. Provided she had enough to keep the Boracyk running and the debt collectors away from her door, Runi was quite happy to make do with what she had. The few vices she had cultivated were modest, her hobbies practically non-existent and her overhead rather low when you factored out her Besadii creditors. Money was just a means to an end, and for now that end was to just keep on flying.

It would be nice to be flush for a while, however.

“We’ll be breaking hyperspace in a few hours. I suggest you get some shut eye until then. There’s a holo imager in the cabin that’ll serve just as well as the viewport.” It was a dismissal, the Mandalorian no longer feeling comfortable with the woman’s presence in her cockpit in light of recent remarks. She had known Cerita had her own agenda when accepting the contract, everyone and their mother’s had one out here, but not knowing just how deep or twisted that ran was more than a little unsettling. More so the fact that she had trained under the same master as Isley, making her very likely a mirror image of the same darkness that flowed through that man. “I’ll give you a heads up when we’re about to hit the system.”