Of Gods and Men

[Laira Darkhold]

Terminus was a nightmare of a world when it came to traffic. Laira had left the cockpit in frustration after she had been queued up in the customs line for two hours, letting Saeza in her near-infinite patience handle sitting in line and talking to the customs officers while she had seen to some issues with the Hyperdrive on the Rebel Outcast. She had tinkered with it and repaired it, as far as she and Rowdy could tell to cut out some of the turbulence they’d been feeling while diving around at maximum speed. The intercom buzzed with the soft voice of the little Vong Jedi girl, “We’re landing now.” The redhead pulled off her gloves and tossed them into the toolbox, making her way out of the engineering bay.

“Alrighty,” she said under her breath, wiping her face with a towel to clean herself of some dirt and grim she had gathered while buried in the components of the freighter. “I guess Leo and I will go find our contact from the Coalition. Saeza, see if you can fuel us up while we’re gone. We could also use four concussion missiles if you can rustle some up.”

The Yuuzhan Vong girl in Jedi robes nodded respectfully towards the redhead. “I shall seek out the dockmaster and make arrangements for appropriate requisitions.”

Laira frowned, digging in her pocket, “Um, we don’t have money for concussion missiles dear.” She said, withdrawing a dirty credit chip. “I’ve got,” she looked at the device closely. “Three hundred fifty seven credits on this. Get what you can, see if we have a fake Judge ID chip you can use to get the rest of it.” Not the most honest way to get fuel and weapons for the freighter, but times were tough on the Redhead and her crew right now.

The tall dark haired man that was her first mate fell in beside her as they left the ship behind in its docking bay. “You know, you got an offer for a photoshoot not long ago. I think it was five thousand credits.”

“Yeah, no thanks.” She grinned, hitting him playfully in the stomach, “I should just have you go instead, since you brought it up.” Laira sighed, “We are just poor right now. It’ll get easier once we pay off my medical bills.” Scar removal treatments weren’t cheap, and the redhead was vain. She’d paid top dollar to ensure her stomach and shoulder were properly repaired and the signs of scars and damage were all removed. Not even a small mark remained on her face or stomach anymore and her shoulder, while still sore in the mornings, was mostly reconstructed. Even still, they wouldn't be on easy street once they finished paying that off.

The awful truth was, they were broke and they'd always be poor. Laira gave too much to the Resistance for them to be otherwise.

“Yeah. How much longer on that?”

“Like six months on our budget. We might have to do an odd job here or there to get things paid for. Maybe sell an artifact or two we find.” Laira led him out of the docking bays and into the spaceport proper where everything was bustling. Banking, markets of all kinds, cantinas, gambling, brothels. They were all on the main plaza of the massive port, and all sorts of illegal things in the lower depths.

If it could be bought or sold, it could be found somewhere on Terminus.

[member="Romi Jade"]

 

[Romi Jade]

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Location: Terminus (Bando's Cantina), Outer Rim​

Objective: Meet Coalition Contact​

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She recognized those prominent crest, four arms, and scruffy sensory whiskers anywhere --- "Bando..." She called out while casually tilting her head down.

"Romi. Jade!" Two of those large appendages took to the air and stretched almost as far as the bar went. She smiled in return, stepping down and gliding along the Cantina floor; Bando sought her hand, guiding her the rest of the way and into one of the benches. "My my...it's been too long." He jerked forward, leaning in. She playfully rolled her eyes a she saw through his facade -- he did this every time he saw her.

"Still no ring on that pretty little finger of yours?"

"You know there's no man in this Galaxy that has my eye the way you do Bando." She followed that up with a sultry smirk that brought them both to laughter when they couldn't hold it any longer.

"Don't ya work me up lass! Whatcha having?"

"Sour Sarlaac, and ohhh do you have any of those Jun-lime slices?" She propped up.

"Fresh for ya! What's the business?"

"Coalition assignment, supposed to rendezvous with the team here." She whipped around as she realized what she was saying, "I hope that's alright?"

"I'm nosey, so by all means!" He slapped the bar, cackling while crafting beverages at the same time. "S'long as everyone behaves--"

"Why? You're not insured?" She countered, before spinning around and propping her back up against the bar.

His reaction was him shaking his head and sliding her her drink.

"Don't forget, you owe me another round on the deck. You and that Starchaser..."

"Fine. This'll be the rubber match."

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The tall man shrugged his shoulders. The crowds at the spaceport were a mixed bag, difficult to navigate unless you were someone people wanted to avoid. Laira had to lurk in his shadow while he cut through the crowd to make any real progress as one of the massive transport shuttles from the Outer Rim was disembarking its thousands of occupants. “Coulda stayed on Black Level.” He grunted as he shouldered past a few Ishi Tib that weren’t making way for them.

“And replace all the exterior lights ‘cause they got stolen the second we left the Outcast alone.” Laira retorted, keeping a hold of his belt so as not to get separated while they made their way through the throngs of civilians all fleeing away from the Sith Empire and Confederacy, looking to find new lives in Wild Space.

He shrugged again, pushing a Balosar out of his way and passing through a family group of Ryn. “There, up ahead.” He pointed to a cantina set off and out of the way from the main corridor. “Bando’s.”

Laira let him continue to check and shove his way against the current, a few times she had to hold him back because people had pressed against her to the point she couldn’t move, but eventually they made it out of the surge of settlers. “Check your pockets I guess. I think I’m missing a button.” She said prodding her shirt where a little pearl white button had once been. “Who steals a button but not a blaster?”

The pair entered the establishment, dusting themselves off as the siren sounded in the spaceport of another mass-transit ship preparing to disgorge its own swarm into Terminus. Once they passed through the doors, the sound dampeners took over and the dull roar of the crowds faded away replaced with cantina music, conversation and whispers, and the clanking of drinks. Laira clasped her hands together, “Oh, I could use a drink. Let me see if I can get a jawa juice with an jun-lime slices and a splash of wild berry liqueur.”

“I thought we didn’t have any money?” Leo asked as they approached the bar.

“I didn’t say I was going to pay for it.” The redhead said with a smirk as she found some sitting alone and patted them gently, letting her hand rest on his. “Buy me a drink?” She asked, putting on her best smile with a little bite of her lip. The patron rolled his eyes and turned away from her, sipping his drink without an answer.

“It’s because we walked in together, he thought we were a couple.” She decided, “Who are we meeting again?”

“Romi Jade. She’s at the end of the bar now.”

Laira went forward, Leo in tow, to the blonde woman and the bartender talking at the end of the bar and decided to wave. “Hiya! Buy me a drink?” She asked with a grin.

[member="Romi Jade"]

 

[Romi Jade]

"I remember when ya first stepped in here ya know?" he gestured for the door, "You were young--you commanded space but not as much as you do now Rom."

She held back her smirk but biting down, letting her gaze trail out before looking down entirely, "I was still unsure then...I wouldn't have made it this far if I did conquer my own demons." Quickly she took hold of the convo with a newfound passion, "Gosh--y'know...You feel like you're in a good space and then things fall to crap around you. I was running away from everything..."

A beat.

"Everything that'd I been groomed for...or told was meant for me."

"I don't know much about that Force mumbo jumbo but...I know the Galaxy has a way of mysteriously putting things in perspective. Can't fight that lass..."

She just stared at him, more so past him as she pondered over his response. "Fair..."

Laira went forward, Leo in tow, to the blonde woman and the bartender talking at the end of the bar and decided to wave. “Hiya! Buy me a drink?” She asked with a grin.

She had been seemingly rolling her eyes at something her bartending companion was saying. It was common in their relationship. Though, seeing two figures approaching from her peripheral view, her head whipped around at the sound of a request. Squinting, she looked the young woman over "How old are you again?" an eyebrow slowly shot up.

[member="Laira Darkhold"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Laira put on a pout while her companion stifled a snicker behind her, her feelings clearly a little hurt by the remark. The redhead always liked to imagine herself as mature for her age, or at least appearing less like the teenager she was. “It’s impolite to ask a lady their age, miss. But I suppose you are forgiven.” Laira managed, though she didn’t return to her smile just yet as she found a bar stool alongside the blonde and took a seat upon it, crossing her left leg over her right, doing her best to look proper and sit with the trained posture that had been beaten into her across her childhood.

The pilot regarded the blonde with her own soft grey eyes, her own hands squishing her cheeks self-consciously, as if testing to see if she looked younger than her mind’s eye usually projected. “I’m poor, sweetie, not a child.” She was kind of a child in truth, but one that had lived enough and seen enough to have had a few drinks before, even if she wasn’t really of age according to some civilized planets. Besides, this was the Outer Rim.

“I like talking over a drink, sooo, if you don’t mind footing the bill,” Laira turned and smiled at the bartender pleasantly, “One jawa juice with a splash of wild berry liquor, with a slice of that fruit if you have any left.” She pointed towards the jun-limes, biting her lip in anticipation.

The tall, dark-maned man shadowing the redhead spoke, directing his attention towards Romi, “That’s Laira, I’m Leo. We’re here to meet you about some business. If you’d like to move us somewhere more private or fill us in, I’m afraid we haven’t been read-in on too much of it all.”

[member="Romi Jade"]