Sailing Off the Edge of the World

[Nemo Sekh]

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THE UNKNOWN REGIONS - 244CORE - RELAALI SPACEPORT
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​

The Unknown Regions. Nemo couldn't help but smile at the thought. Here, the stars felt as vast and mysterious as the blackest of oceans; it held something of her homeworld, Manaan. How it had been when she was a child. When it still held wonder. On the galaxy's own frontier, wonder was about the only resource not in short supply.

244Core, by Core standards, was a backwater's backwater. Relaali, and its inky-dink spaceport, with three whole speeder hubs. She could hear the patronising Coruscanti accents now. That was one thing she certainly didn't miss out here; trading trinkets for senators and governors, for a pittance.

No, where the Unknown regions were considered, Relaali was Coruscant, Kaas city, and Denon rolled into one. With Nar Shaddaa to boot, even if it did have only about three gangs to its name. Buying a blaster here was like trying to find a bachelor on Nal Hutta- she'd tried both. Nemo shuddered at the thought. "Some mistakes, you can't afford to make twice." Altogether, the city here wasn't her focus, however. She'd propped up at a cheap hotel, setting up her base of operations for a few weeks while she worked on another find. Something big, and most certainly old.

The Omenada.

And she'd invited a friend, to boot. A smuggler, yes, of some repute, but a salvager too. "Practically an archaeologist, huh?" It'd been a classic set-up; friend of a friend had recommended him. She didn't exactly trust either friend, but those types always gave the best advice. Even when it was bad, something interesting was usually coming your way. She'd sent him a holo-message:

"Hey, Dano- can I call you Dano? Too forward? ...Anyhow, I've got a proposition for you. Job, way out in the Unknown Regions. I've been doing some digging, and I hate to say it, but I think I've got something big on my hands. Our hands, if you want. They say you're the man to go to for fishing ancient things out of, uh, ancient places. I'll be waiting on 244Core, Relaali City. Siren Hotel, Room 901. Don't book a taxi, and don't take the stairs. We're sailing off the edge of the world here. See ya."

Now he just had to show.

[member="Dano Dil"]

 

[Dano Dil]

Deep in the Unknown Regions...

He hadn't though he'd be back out in the Unknown Regions so soon.

The planet he came to might as well have been medieval had it not been for sky high mining equipment that towered above the "city".

It seemed that after word got out about his journey to Ilum with those Jedi, people began to think he was some sort of explorer. Of course, they weren't entirely wrong, he knew what he was doing. He'd been brought to 244core by a good opportunity, an opportunity to prove himself as an "archaeologist". Until now he'd been running mundane shipping for a band of smugglers. This seemed like it was real work.

The city streets stunk of sulfur and ash, and a perpetual smog seemed to hang low around the buildings. This planet was a mine. If you lived here and didn't work in a mine, you probably sold food and clothes to someone that did. Dano's contact had said their objective was somewhere ancient. It brought back memories from a few years back, in his early teens. Him and his friends would descend to the lowest levels of Coruscant to explore and salvage scrap. That stuff was as ancient as he could imagine.

The smog and drizzled rain made finding his way around the streets difficult. Through the alley, or street (at this point he couldn't tell), he saw the fading neon sign of the Siren Hotel.

Entering the hotel, he immediately choked on the smoke that had hot-boxed the lobby. He made his way to the elevator as the various aliens who resided in the room gave him dirty looks.

Ninth floor.

The elevator stuttered the entire way up, and Dano was afraid it would stop and he would be trapped. At least he was safe from the menacing folks downstairs. he stepped out of the elevator and turned down the hallway towards 901.

Room 901. He knocked on the door. "It's Dano Dil"


He looked around as he waited. This place really was the edge of the world.

[member="Nemo Sekh"]

 

[Nemo Sekh]

A knock at the door. "Let yourself in!" Nemo cried, shuffling from table to table, juggling papers and datapads. She glanced back to see the Duros shoulder his way inside. "Hey, Dano!" With a smile she planted the mass of notes and ancient manuscripts on the hotel room's single bed. "I know, I know. One hell of an operation." So much for first impressions. Then again, she'd already dragged him out to the Unknown Regions with little to no information. In for a credit, in for a thousand. "Hope it wasn't too easy to get here." She grinned, filing through the papers.

"They tell me you're one hell of a salvager, Dano. Sold half of Coruscant as scrap." There. She drew a single scroll from the pile, cracked and yellow. "I know this isn't usually your kind of job, but, well... have you tried getting a partner out to the Unknown Regions? Like selling water on Mon Calamari." She leapt up to drag a chair over for him before dashing back over to the parchment, one arm waving for him to sit down. "What we're looking for here, I admit... it's a little more stone age than what you're used to."

"The lost order of the Omenada."

"More precisely, their temple- and even more precisely still, what I suspect might be inside." Her face twisted into one of deep concentration as she scrolled through a datapad, a continuous, mistyped stream of ideas flashing by. Scrawled in a hurry. "I'll keep the history lesson short. You don't quite look like the type, and more importantly- we might not be the only people chasing this. Some serious types, I've gotta warn you." Her stare was deadly serious, despite the wild smile.

"Out here in the Unknown Regions, Force traditions take on all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. Some really freaky stuff. But this city we're in, Relaali? It's called that for a reason. Relaali, he's a legend here, mythical hero of sorts- brokered a peace between the warring corporations. More importantly, he's the first, and I daresay last, known member of an order they call the Omenada." Her eyes gleamed with excitement.

"Now here's where truth and legend, they start to blend together a little- the Omenada were obsessed with precognition. Reading the future. Hence the 'Omen.' And yet, a few thousand years ago, all trace of them disappears. Puff. Like a smuggler on wedding night."

"So here's a question for you, Dano- if they could predict the future, what the hell wiped them all out?"

[member="Dano Dil"]​

 

[Dano Dil]

Dano took all of the information as quickly as he could.

"Sold half of Coruscant in scrap? That was just some fun times me and my friends had exploring the lower levels." He chuckled. He liked this reputation.

As for these Omenada, Dano was stumped. He took a seat at the small table. "That's a damn good question though. Maybe if they could see into the future there was something they saw, but couldn't stop?"

"The few Jedi I've been around have showed me some crazy stuff. A friend of mine tried to use the force so hard that he stopped being able to use it for a short time. Do you think that could've happened? The used their powers too much and when they needed them, they didn't work?"

Dil was certainly no conspiracy theorist, but a millennia old lost Jedi order, out here? Dil was giddy with excitement. He was glad he'd accepted Nemo's call.

[member="Nemo Sekh"]

 

[Nemo Sekh]

"Now there's an idea. But if they could see it, and they couldn't stop it... why didn't they run for it?" Her gaze fell away from him. Mind was racing, awful images. Dano'd raised a concerning point. Forcers, melting their own brains with powers beyond even their comprehension. Nemo tried to avoid them as was, save the long-dead ones. But if the Omenada couldn't stop what had come for them... it mightn't be exactly dead.

"...Unless they couldn't run from it either."

Nemo paused to think. They might be stirring a Kinrath nest they weren't ready for. But then again, neither would their competition. Besides, when had that attitude ever gotten anyone anywhere? Away from the grave. She dismissed the thought, raising an eyebrow in Dano's direction. "You still up for it?"

She rose now, clapping her thighs as she considered their next move. She raised a hand to point in his direction. "Because our other competition won't back down. The less I say, the better. That's one nasty Chiss outfit, and sharp to boot. Red-eyed chuttas always are. They mightn't quite have our information-" She gestured to the faded heap of ancient tomes. "-But they've easily got ten-times the men. I dunno how you feel about this, but you're kind of my muscle here." She could throw a punch, but through twenty Chiss? "Let's hope it doesn't go that far. We move quick, we're good."

"First, though, I've gotta ask you something. If I told you there was an ancient temple, under this city, how would you get to it? Let's keep it legal." The glint in her eye could've blinded a star.

"Say, hypothetically, it right was under this hotel." She winked.

[member="Dano Dil"]​

 

[Dano Dil]

Dano's interest peaked when she said they had competition. "Chiss huh? Haven't had too much experience with them, but if we have more information than them, we might as well be home free."

She continued laying out theories.

When she said that the temple was underneath the city, he grinned. That might be exactly the head start they needed. When she said that the entrance was underneath the hotel, he beamed. This was all too easy.

"So, hypothetically under the hotel, or literally? Because either way I'd start in the basement. If I know ancient cities, they like to build upwards. Who knows what kind of network of basements could run beneath us."

[member="Nemo Sekh"]

 

[Nemo Sekh]

Nemo grinned at Dano's response. "That's the spirit!" Unless the Chiss caught up, they wouldn't be an issue. If they did catch up, well... that'd likely be the end of her and Dano's issues, full time. She didn't want to spend the rest of time as a scorch mark on a wall. And if the Duros was as sharp as he seemed, neither did he- that helped things along. "Nothing like, uh... team cohesion." How one smile could hold so much confidence and unease at the same time, it was hard to say. On a job like this, Nemo just felt some electric mania in her gut, like all the stars aligning at once.

Had best make a good shot while it counted.

"Well, Dano, let's just say I didn't book this place for the room service." She fumbled for a site plan amidst the files, handing him a faded blueprint of the building. "Can you do anything with this? Quietly, if you can. There's a nice Rodian couple a few floors down. Did you bring any gear? We just need nough to get us in; you'll have to walk me through the specifics- I don't usually make the ruins, just crawl through 'em."

She paused for a moment, eyes narrowing. "Oh, one other thing- you're not superstitious, right? 'Cause if I'm reading this right..." She held a thin leather skin to the light, revealing a swarm of ancient runes. "...We might just be busting into a burial ground."

Suddenly, that wild smile returned. "Still- saves our families the burial costs, right? Funeral industry's one big scam anyway."

[member="Dano Dil"]​

 

[Dano Dil]

"Superstitious? A little." He was more superstitious than he wanted to admit. He'd seen the strange things Jedi could do, but his mission seemed like it could be a good haul.

He looked over the maps and records of the hotel. "The hotel was built about two centuries ago in the waning days of the plague, so naturally, the original builders included a safe house built into the foundation. However it seemed that the safe house was built on top of a sewer access of some sort, moat likely from the original foundation of the city, but I can't tell. My theory about a network of tunnels seems reasonable, especially for a city built upon an ancient ruin. Chances are if we can get access to the basement, and the safe house, we should have access into the ancient part of the city. If you have any other plans though, we should consider all of our options."

[member="Nemo Sekh"]

 

[Nemo Sekh]

"Not too superstitious to go upturning graves though, right?" Nemo raised her eyebrow. It'd do no good for him to have a crisis of faith then, and not now, though she was certain he knew that would be part of the job. Hauling ancient starship hulls and speeder scrap was one thing, but the bodies that came with them? That was always different. It separated the salvagers and the treasure-hunters. She was certainly one thing, but which was he?

All the same, her suspicion turned into a grin as he spoke. "So it's just a clean run? We don't even have to blow the floor? Can thank the plague for that at least. Usually does me no favours." So much history, lost, and with it, the value of almost any treasure; a galaxy-wide regression was no good for anybody. Even those picking from the bones, like she did. "Dano, you might just be a genius." An integration of the ancient ruins and the sewer system. Re-purposing the old to serve the new. "Let's just hope you're right, and that whatever's left down there doesn't smell too bad."

She hopped to her feet, and gathered a select number of scrolls together. "That's the nature of this business, my fellow blue-skinned buddy- you're always crawling through someone's poodoo." She started down the stairs, and gestured him to follow. "You go, and I'll be right behind. Hope you packed a change of clothes."

[member="Dano Dil"]​

 

[Dano Dil]

Dano threw his backpack over his shoulder and made his way to the door. He pushed it open into the hallway. It was well lit, showing all the grunge the hotel had to offer. He led Nemo down the hall to the stairs.

"Fair warning, if you haven't had an encounter with them already, the gentlemen downstairs are rather rough. I'd like to just slip past them as quick as possible. We'll take the stairs, chances are we will avoid making anyone suspicious that way. if I'm correct there is only one stairwell, and it also leads to the basement where we need to be."

Dano guided his companion down the stairs, making sure to stay on the outside as to see any oncoming traffic. Sadly the stairs only allowed for on person at a time, so his strategy was bust. They reached the bottom of the stairs. The duracrete floor at the base of the stairs was much older here. They must be standing on the plague shelter. Across the small alcove where they stood was the door to the lobby. Beneath the stairs was a hatch.

Dano tugged at the handle of the hatch to no avail. He didn't want to alert anyone with a blaster shot, and he certainly wasn't going to ask for a key. He looked at the girl. "You know anything about locks?"

[member="Nemo Sekh"]

 

[Nemo Sekh]

"Rough? Rough is good." Nemo grinned. Dano didn't exactly look like the type to back down in a fight- if nothing else, tenacity was the life-blood that bound salvagers and smugglers alike. As all-encompassing powers went, it put the Force to shame. All the same, it might just be that he wasn't stupid enough to go starting them. That was the second trait all lowlifes and spacers clung to: always know when to run. Nemo sure as hell held to it- she didn't exactly stay in shape for the health benefits.

Boots and belts clattering, she slinked down the stars at the Duros' back, arms against the walls to hold balance. Too narrow to allow for any clumsiness. If there was one thing she didn't want, it was for the Relaali authorities to try and separate a Twi'lek and a Duros. Enough blue to make an ocean blush. And an Unknown Regions doctor cry just trying to separate the two. Three steps up, she peered over his shoulder to the hatch.

"Now there's where we wanna go." She edged down the stairs, coming alongside him at the bottom. "Anything under a hatch that suspicious has got to be valuable. Or a maintenance exit. Either way, they don't want us to be there." She shot him a wild look. "And that means..." She knelt beside it.

"...There's no better place to be."

Nemo frowned. "Locks, huh?" It ware rare to come across non-digital security; even ancient Jedi orders usually had holograms, at least. Hell, even Rakata had holograms. She patted her legs up and down, feeling for the right tool. One hand slid into her jacket, drawing out a small pry-bar. "Not the most delicate solution, I'll admit, but..." She held it out for the Duros to take. "...You're the muscle, Dano."

"An inelegant weapon, for an uncivilised age."

[member="Dano Dil"]