Daine Saria
New Member
“This was dumb, this was dumb, this was so dumb.”The alarms were blaring on her cruiser- her newly acquired cruiser. Okay, so she stole it. Distress signal blaring, dogfight ensuing, and she had barely made it off Indoumodo too. That was the Saria luck, she supposed.
A new electric spark off the console had her hands singed but nothing a little tweaking couldn’t fix. She’d flown worse, but perhaps not in worse conditions. So much for being a great bodyguard, her charge dead, all because someone had figured out her name.
A proximity alert had her cursing and Daine was sure that today probably wasn’t going to get much worse.
---
ONE DAY BEFORE
“I’m looking for a gun to hire,” Said the tall, gangly Twi’lek male. He was an odd mustard color, but covered in multiple layers of robes that were sure to have been meant to make him look more imposing, but just made him look like a pile of laundry.
“You go to her, then.” The gruff voice of the man behind the bar left no room for more questions, and he stalked off. There was very little question about who he was talking about, the only noticeable females in the room were either dressed in little outfits meant to entice a different kind of client and a lone woman sitting in a far corner, cleaning a blaster. Dressed in dark leather and a crisp white shirt tucked into well-worn pants, she fit in as much as anyone did in this bar, a little rough and certainly not the happiest person.
The male Twi’lek shuffled towards her, imagining his robes whispered across the floor, but they were damp and just dragged the dirt with him.
The woman didn’t even look at him as he approached her booth, continuing her task of reassembling her blaster, only a few parts away from replacing the burned out part she had chucked to the floor.
“…Excuse me?” The Twi’lek cleared his throat and took a hasty step back when the woman primed the blaster.
“How much are you paying?” She asked, still not bothering to look at him. He drew himself up to his full height and cleared his throat.
“I’m prepared to make it worth your while, Mis....” That made her shoot him a look and roll her eyes.
“Daine. I get that a lot,” She said with a roll of her eyes. She set the blaster down on the table, hand continuing to rest on it. The Twi’lek twitched just a tad at the action. She smirked. “If you’re offering anything less than standard fee, I’ll tell you to go to the next guy, who is not as good, and definitely will get you killed out here.”
The Twi’lek nodded, wrinkling his nose at the mention of death. Twitchy, picky, and squeamish--what in Force’s name was she supposed to do with this kind of client?
“I understand. My name is Wrell Dreffnun, I have a meeting with Monquar Vashe tomorrow afternoon; I expect full protection on-planet while we wait and for you to stay by my side throughout the negotiation,” He explained and she paused a moment before nodding. She knew Vashe, some guy for hire who was very good at extracting merchandise, otherwise known as stealing. He’d been known to be ruthless, though, killing over a few credits and not blinking an eye. They’d never officially met, but names get passed around in a place like Indoumodo.
“Deal. Give me two hours to gather my gear and I’ll meet you at your ship.” With a little trading of data information and the map to where he had stashed his ship, she was off. It wasn’t the first time she’d played bodyguard to the skittish “businessman” who came through. She had gotten enough of a good reputation for being an excellent shot who kept her mouth shut about nearly everything.
She got up, brushing past the Twi’lek, out the door. She patted her jacket pocket for the two cold, useless weapons that rested there, an old habit, one she usually considered good luck.
That would change.
---
The proximity alarms were just about getting on her nerves. Daine punched in manual control and took over. The fire from the freighter was bearing down on the tiny piece of junk cruiser her idiotic client had taken to the godawful meeting with that sack of bantha dren. Vashe had lost interest in whatever slave deal Dreffnun had been offering because he had frakking recognized her. In seven years no one had, but she just had to have all the luck that Vashe was someone her father had done business with. No wonder he’d gotten himself killed. For a moment, she felt sick for thinking of her father like that, but she shook it off. Better to feel bad about herself when she wasn’t about to be blown up. The damn light-speed was taking forever to engage; the engines were near cold when she broke into the damn thing. She banked the cruiser down hard and right and saw one of the missiles veer enough off course to give her some breathing room.
“Is that you, little Daine Saria? Escaped dear old dad’s ship. You know there’s people looking for you…” Vashe’s voice echoed in her ears, and she clenched her teeth.
“Well, now’s not the time for sentimentalism,” She growled out and slammed the controls left.
Three hours into the meeting, Vashe swept in, late and smarmy. He took one look at her client, one look at her and burst out laughing. She knew she was made as soon as she saw him. She recognized him, from way back on her father’s crew. He had set up the whole deal with the man who’d ambushed and massacred that crew. What luck.
It’d take one shot for her to hit the floor and her client fell the next beat, a sizzling wound in his throat. So much for a good streak with her work. A backdoor got her out into the main halls, and a quick shot at the door control would slow him down getting through that door again. Three hallways, two tight spots later she’d managed to get into the hangar and kick her way into a tiny cruiser meant for nothing more than short trips.
“Running again, little Saria?” Came the yell from Vashe as the cruiser door shut behind her. She nearly tripped over her own feet getting to the pilot seat to start the damn thing.
A sharp beep alerted her to the light speed finally-FINALLY ready. With a quick input of coordinates, any coordinates, she hit the gas and let the stars whiz past and left this mess behind. She slammed back into her seat when the ship took off and by the time the lights faded from her eyes and her neck stopped aching, the ship had stopped. Still in Wild Space but where the hell had she ended up?
“Well, at least, there’s not more missiles aimed at me,” She breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed both hands over her face.
