Scouting for Work

[Hevana Martin]

You know what sucks? Being frozen in carbonite. Know what sucks more? Being frozen in carbonite and finding out you're out of a job. Now, being a scout trooper in the Galactic Empire was not exactly the most lucrative of jobs to begin with, but it was still a job. And the combat pay was certainly an added benefit. Then she wakes up, finds out almost everyone she had ever known and loved had died probably thinking she had abandoned them, and no job!

It was a depressing state to be certain At least her gear had survived more or less intact The scout armor was a bit dated, true, but it was still functional. More importantly her rocket launcher still worked! She would have to be sparse with her anti-Jedi weapons given that they were irreplaceable, maybe she could sell them. They had to be worth a fortune as many Jedi and Sith were running around these days. Truthfully not much different than from before she was frozen.

In the meantime she needed to eat, and all of her fun... things had sadly not survived. How rude that they had not been properly stored as well. Unfortunately most of the good jobs wanted to see things on her resume besides "knows over 1001 ways to kill a man" and "extensive knowledge of weapons and explosives." Which, barring somehow managing to enlist in some local military despite her records no longer existing, left her with only one option if she wanted enough money to pay for her substantial meals.

Be a mercenary.

Hell if she knew how to do that though. She had no idea what groups were out there, and probably could not afford travel to one of their requirement offices. So instead she had done the only sensible thing for someone in her position. Find the nearest bar and spend what little money she had to get drunk. Luckily, she thought as she held the strong tasting, half empty beer, Hevana was a cheap drunk. And was thus already borderline wasted.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan Kerrigan had a liking for bars. The seedier, the better. Granted as a senior operative of Omega she might have a - by her reckoning - neat apartment in the best part of Fondor, an office and - gods, she was so 'respectable' these days, the sheer horror - a secretary, but fancy restaurants and posh clubs still did not match her tastes.

By contrast, wretched hives of scum and villainy were perfect. With the usual assortment of criminals, swindlers, folks down on their luck and dancers. Dressed in black trousers, red tank top and leather jacket, she sauntered into the bar, lightsabre and heavy blaster pistol at her side, just in case. Siobhan had a tendency to attract trouble, perhaps one could say she had a liking for it.

"You there, I don't know your face...and this is Blood Pack territory!" One Trandoshan thug blocked her path with a couple of his colleagues.

"You sure? I'm kinda famous! You're really deprived. Must have spent the last couple years under a rock somewhere," Siobhan quipped.

"Human has a sense of humour. Maybe we should take it to the backroom and go over the rules."

"Yeah...rule number one..."

Siobhan did not give him time to finish his no doubt dramatic line and grabbed ahold of the Trandoshan's wrist, wrenching it backwards until she heard a crack. The Devaronian brought up a blaster, jabbing it into her, but her leg spun and slammed a hard kick that knocked the gun out of his hand and pushed him into the hard wall. She spun when the Trandoshan came at her, then when he lunged forward struck out her fist to punch him in the face, then rammed her arm into his larynx, making him tumble down. Their last comrade, a human, drew a vibroblade and slashed at her in a wild flurry, then looked in surprise when suddenly the sword flew out of his hands. As he dove to grab it Siobhan caught the blade and twirled it, taking off his arm and slashing into his shoulder with an aggressive swipe. He went to his knees, clutching his wounds.

"That's my number one rule. Always the same," Siobhan muttered to herself, tossing a credit chit at the counter while the bouncers threw the three unfortunate fellows out before someone stumbled over them. Even a low-lofe bar such as this one required some measure of order, after all. She sat down on a seat next to one of the dancing booths and propped her boots up on the stained table, winking at the dancer and leaned forward to stuff a few credits into her thong. As she was admiring the girl's reach and flexibility, she noticed Hevana out of the corner of her eye.

 

[Hevana Martin]

After a long (ok... like six years) military service, Hevana had an appreciation for anyone skilled at fighting. And when she heard the commotion to see the single girl beating the living crap out of the lowlifes that had been trying to accost her, the soldier inside could not help but be awakened. As well as a few other aspect of Hevana she had not really had the time to think about since being unfrozen. Hey, Hevana was a woman with needs and this girl was hot while kicking ass!

Putting down her mug, she watched as the girl sat down and watched for a moment. Unfortunately she did not seem to notice Hevana, which kind of hurt. Hevana did not think she was gorgeous or anything, but she at least thought she was kind of pretty when she tried. And seeing as how the girl was interested in one of the dancers, it was clearly something to do with Hevana. Which meant the scout probably had no chance of scoring.

Suddenly feeling a bit down, Hevana turned back to her drink and took another swig. It was an incredibly lonely feeling having no place to go, and no one waiting for you to go to. Frak, she did not even have a place to sleep tonight! Already she was wishing that she had never been woken up and just left in that carbonite. How was it helping to wake her up in this kind of situation with nothing but her weapons and armor and the handful of credit chits in her pocket.

Sighing, she knocked back the rest of her beer.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan gazed at Hevana for a short moment before turning back to admiring the dancer. The girl seemed to be taking to drink with gusto, but Siobhan had to admit she was cute. A waitress came over, bringing her a bottle of whiskey and a glass. Siobhan took a swig, then after another glance at the stranger made the snap decision to walk over.

If nothing came of it, there were always dancers and the night was still young, so nothing would be lost. She gave the dancer she'd been oggling an appreciative smile. "Nice performance, hun," she said huskily.

"Come later and how much reach I have."

"I might take you up on that."

Then Siobhan had reached Hevana's table and sat down on one of the chairs without asking for permissiion, being her usual polite and tactful self. "I prefer whiskey. Isn't at strong here as I'd like, but still," she commented. "What's your name, hun?" the ex-Jedi grinned at her. "Come here often or it just one of those days?"

 

[Hevana Martin]

Hevana's eyes widened as the girl actually came over and sat down. She did notice me! Hevana thought gleefully, the schoolgirl in her squeeing in a most aggravating noise. Outward she attempted to remain cool and calm, not wanting to appear easy. Of course given that she was now in an advanced stage of inebriation, that was certainly asking a lot.

"Corporal... er, rather former Corporal Hevana Martin." she said embarrassed at her slip. A military uniform won girls over, clinging to past military glory was just a turn off. "I... don't do well wisth whiskey, I get verrry drunk."

Which must be saying a lot given how she was clearly already drunk after only a single beer. Whiskey, a drink not long ago (her time not the Galaxy's), had been a favorite of hers. That she had not yet returned to the alcoholic she had been yet was saying how much better her self control was. How well that self control would hold up given her current situation was yet to be seen. "Never been here before. This bar. It used to be a different bar a loooooong time ago. Guess its a good place for drunks no matter what century ya live in."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan took another swig of whiskey, then put the glass down, sizing Hevana up. "Name's Siobhan Kerrigan. Which army you'd serve in - Republic? Where'd you see action?" Given the fact that they were on Coruscant, it seemed a reasonable obvious assumption to Siobhan. Of course, there were also sorts of minor potentates in the region whose territories had been forcibly absorbed by the Republic. Sometimes their forces weren't absorbed into the Republic and so their troopers found themselves cast out onto civvie street. She leaned back a bit in her chair as she gazed at Hevana, which coincidentally made the lightsabre attached to her belt visible. Her cyborg eye glowed crimson in the dim light. The scars on her face showed this wasn't a woman who'd spent her life on the safe side.

"Not many drunks around here as pretty as you," she said, smiling, but then a look of puzzlement crossed Siobhan's features when Hevana started talking about it being an extremely long time ago. Of course, given Hevana's level of inebriation, that might just be the beer talking. "Century, huh? Heh, what's your anti-aging creme to stay cute like that and where'd you get it? Could really come in handy one day!" she asked jokingly with a light chuckle.

 

[Hevana Martin]

"Galactic Empire, 404th legion out of Bastion. Though we were stationed on Coruscant... though I have no idea what happened to them." She sighed, the memories sobering her up. It was times like this she wondered if she had been listed as MIA or AWOL. Somehow she did not expect the records to still be around, even if she could access them. Which she probably could not.

A blush formed on her face not related to the alcohol when Siobhan complemented her. "Well, my anti-aging cream involves in unhealthy amount of carbonite. I don't really recommend it."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan frowned at the revelation. The story sounded extremely crazy, but the ex-Jedi had experienced enough craziness in her life, including zombies, possession by an ancient Sith spirit and an interesting quest for a machine that could restore her connection to the Force, that she did not dismiss claims.

"Galactic Empire, huh?" There was no judgement in her voice. What she'd heard about the Empire made them look like your typical despots, but to someone like Siobhan the ancient Empire was about as relevant as the hordes of Genghis Khan might be to the average person on Earth. Moreover, her knowledge of history was derived from watching Game of Stars. "Must've really pissed off someone big to get frozen up, Hevana," she said softly. "Missed a hell of a lot. Losing everyone you know, I'm sorry," she said feelingly, giving Hevana a light pat on the shoulder.

"Empire's been gone for ages, then a virus wrecked the Galaxy." Siobhan was probably not the person one should go to if one wanted a history lesson. "There's a couple deluded tossers prancing around on the rim saying they're the Empire...oh, pardon, the 'Remnant'." From Siobhan's perspective, the only thing that separated the Remnant potentates from the average warlord was the size of their egoes and fleet, but nothing in substance.

"Hey, you want to get out of here? Got a place close by."

 

[Hevana Martin]

A grimace crossed her face at Siobhan's words. She was aware of the Remnant, and truthfully it did not impress her terribly. Felt like little more than a group playing make believe and trying to ride on the coattails of history. "Yeah, well, my grandmother was kind of a queen. What can I say? Life sucks and then you get frozen in carbonite."

Okay so maybe that was not the exact way the idiom went, but she got philosophical when drunk. That or she just thought it was a lot funnier than it really was. Which one did not particularly matter, not after the invitation she had just heard. Sure, it could be nothing more than wanting to rob her of whatever money she did not have someplace else... but there was the promise of something more interesting happening. And even if that did not happen, the chance at having a roof over her head for the night was hard to pass up. "I would like that," she said with a shy smile.

Getting up she left the little money she had left for the beer, and gathered up the large sack and cylindrical bag under the table that contained all her gear. As they began to leave the bar, Siobhan's trandoshan friend was waiting outside with a new group of thugs. Hevana knew immediately this was going to go bad places quick. And she was proven right as one guy tried to grab her, probably to use her as a hostage. "You have cross the Blood Pa..." The guy grabbing her did not get the chance as a swift elbow doubled him over. She then grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into her knee. There was a loud crack, and it did not come from her.

He had been wearing a holster, and before he had even begun to fall she had slipped the blaster free and shot two more of the thugs. By now the rest had started to react to her unexpected and explosive action, but it was to late. Hevana was already behind another and jacked his gun arm behind his back, using him as a shield. The Blood Pack members hesitated for a moment, during which Hevana produced a vibroblade. Her shield's neck was slit in a single swift motion and the body sent flying into a trio of them to closely packed.

Finally it was only the trandoshan standing. He saw the chaos she had caused and turned, running as quickly as he could. Before the three she had knocked down had recovered, she leveled her stolen blaster at them. They got the message and stopped moving. "It seems scum is still scum."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Some people just happened to be slow learners, Siobhan reflected when one of the Blood Pack thugs gripped her shoulder. "Hey, she's with these Omega guys...maybe we," he did not get any further because she slammed the back of her head into his face, hitting his nose. As she spun she seized the man's neck in her cyber-hand and squeezed his throat, snapping his neck, then he slumped to the ground.

A thug lunged at her with an axe and she leapt into the air as he struck towards her legs, jumping over the slash and knocked her boot into his face. He was knocked backwards, then came at her again, swinging his weapon. Siobhan dodged and seemed to evade, then suddenly her lightsabre flew into her hand and flared to life, the blue blade humming. The ex-Jedi charged as the thug looked her in surprise and fear, shearing his blade in two and then cleaving him half through a brutal slash across his mid-section.

She grabbed his axe and then threw it into the fray, letting it sail through the air to smash into the head of another thug taking aim at her with a shotgun, embedding itself in his forehead. Two thugs fired at her with a salvoe of laser bolts and Siobhan looked almost bored. Given the fact that getting past someone who was armed with a lightsabre, unless one was in greater numbers and say used heavy repeaters, this was perhaps understandable.

She toyed with the gangsters a bit, spinning her blade in a fast motion to send their bolts flying back to them or against the walls of the building, making them ricochet and forcing her enemies to dodge. One thug was hit when a bolt struck his leg, then as he fell forward his chest. The second one made an effort to hit the ground and seek cover behind a dustbin after being struck in the shoulder, but Siobhan just raised her hand and levitated the dustbin, then made it fall right on top of him. The thug gasped as it collapsed onto him with a loud thud. He desperately tried to crawl out, reaching for the pistol that had been knocked two metres away, but then Siobhan was upon him and clove her blade into his head.

Then there was just the Trandoshan and his three stooges left and they scurried away when Hevana took aim at them. She smirked at Hevana's comment, surveying the carnage the woman had caused and looking quite impressed. then swatted her on the shoulder. "Always a good way to relieve stress, aren't they? Nice work. Looks like you're not rusty at all, Got all warmed up now?" No, Siobhan was not subtle at all. "C'mon, let's get to my place. I've got an idea for you to use your skills again. An offer you won't refuse." Said place was a room Siobhan had rented for her stay on Coruscant.

 

[Hevana Martin]

It pleased her that Siobhan liked her work, it had been a long time since Hevana had been in a good fight. It had felt good to be moving again, to be doing what she had been trained to do. This was her life, the Battle. Not politics, not trading, not a brothel (though a fmale clientale only brothel did not sound all that bad...), combat was her career field.

"I would love to go-"

Before she could continue the adrenaline began to wear off and her body remembered how drunk she was... and realized how much moving around she had just done. Running over to the side of the bar she threw up what little she had left in her stomach from her last meal, somehow managing not to get any of it on her only pair of clothes.

"Beer doesn't agree with me either..." she mumbled to herself in misery.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan gave Hevana a light swat on the arm. "I hadn't noticed. Guess I won't be getting a new drinking partner, after all," she said dryly. "For the record, you're still cute!"

She gripped Hevana by the shoulder when she was done and led her to a speeder. "You ready to fly, hun? Don't fall off." As usual Siobhan was very considerate and interested in the well-being of her fellow sentient beings. After another look at Hevana, she powered up the engines and the speeder took off. After a few minutes they ended up at a room Siobhan had rented in downtown Coruscant. Lower Coruscant might be a bag of fun, but staying there for the night would be just asking for trouble.

"Refresher's over there," she indicated a small chamber, where Hevana could get cleaned up. "Now my offer. Well, one of 'em. I work for Omega Pyre, biggest merc corporation in the Galaxy," she said with a hint of pride. "We pretty much run our own collection of planets around Fondor. Most big players are our clients. We don't waste time with heel-clicking and bureaucratic bullshit, we plan our battles, go in and get the job done. We do anything from selling information, providing security escorts or conquering planets. That's the line everyone gets, but you're tough, you can fight and our bosses aren't stuffy twats obsessed with protocol. You can't get your old unit back, but we can give you the chance to prove yourself and find a new one. Besides, you're hot. We always want to get the pretty ladies to join us."

 

[Hevana Martin]

It almost seemed too good to be true, for her to receive an offer like this. Not only had she found a cute girl who wanted her to spend the night, but said cute girl was offering Hevana exactly the job she was looking for. Not only that, but for the largest merc company in the Galaxy? That was certainly the kind of thing that she could have only dreamed of not long ago. Heck, the woman even thought she was cute after puking her guts out! That certainly had to count for something. However, instead of answering directly she gave a small smile instead.

"Let me think about it."

Moving away from Siobhan, she entered the refresher. It was nice to clean the dirt, grime, and blood that had gotten on her skin and in her hair. She wanted to be fresh for tonight. After cleaning herself, she spent more time washing the remaining traces of vomit from her mouth. It would have been significantly less than romantic to kiss someone while tasting of barf. Only once she felt she was ready did she finally leave the refresher wearing only a towel wrapped around her torso. Moving to the bed she sat down and crossed her legs. "Tell me about the... benefits," she said with a coy smile.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Well...we make sure our staff is well-motivated," Siobhan purred. The line sounded corny, but then most of her lines were as corny as a maize field. She moved towards Hevana, gripping the towel and tossing it away, then leaned down to kiss her. "You know how important team bonding is, gotta make sure any unit works like a well-oiled machine," she threaded her finger through Hevana's air and pulled her forward into a deep kiss before kissing down her neck.

"Of course, the question is, are you up for it? Eight hundred years is a looong time...our employees have standards to meet...," she grinned at Hevana.

 

[Hevana Martin]

A small moan escaped at the kisses, Hevana's fingers mimicking Siobhan's. She did not care if the lines were corny, and she certainly did not mind the towel being torn away. Looking up, she simply grinned back. "Girl, after eight hundreds years I need this more than Rebels need baths. I plan on setting some new standards."

Fingers through her hair, Hevana pulled Siobhan down for another kiss.

---

Later, though possibly not as much later as Hevana might have wished, she laid there staring at the ceiling. A growl came from her stomach, and her super human muscles all felt weak. "I. Am. So. Hungry."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

It was time for another corny Siobhan line. "Really? Didn't you just have lots to eat?" she quipped lamely, then gripped Hevana's shoulder to turn her around and kiss her when Hevana's stomach growled. "Oh, that kind," she said a bit theatralically, as if she had not deliberately misunderstood. "C'mon, there's a bistro close by. You've done very well in your job application so far, I was well pleased."

The bistro was a small restaurant that unfortunately did not serve all you can eat buffets, but food was cheap enough and since there were few customers present at the momet, the waitress was quick to take their orders. Siobhan ordered something light and then the waitress jotted down whatever Hevana desired to sate the hunger in her. "We leave for Fondor once we're done here. I'll call @[member="Tegaea Alcori"], she's CEO, runs all the day-to-day matters and most of the operations. We should get a contract drawn up soon. Bet we can soon find a job where you can test our your skills. Your other ones!"

A field test of sorts where Hevana could show how much of an asset she would be, preferrably also by utlising her missile launcher. One wondered whether by how a more modern version had been produced. After all, the last time it had been used was eight hundred years ago. Then again, apparently clone troopers had worn the same armour as Republic soldiers in a Sith War 3,600 before the collapse of the Republic.

 

[Hevana Martin]

"And it was wonderbut," Hevana replied to the corny line, "but lacking in calories I'm afraid. The downsides of being a super soldier."

The promise of food was enough to get Hevana dressed and out the door in near record time. When they arrived at the bistro, she scanned the menu while she not so patiently waited for Siobhan to order. Then finally it was her turn, and she was looking hungrily at the menu. "I'll have this, this, this, that, and this one to start. Oh, and this one as well," she said pointing at different things on the menu.

"I've never been to Fondor," she said turning back to Siobhan. "As long as combat hasn't changed in the past eight centuries I'm sure you'll find my skills top notch. I also bet I have some toys that no one else has, my unit specialized in anti-Jedi tactics after all."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

"Killed lots of Jedi, huh?" Siobhan raised an eyebrow, then suddenly her expression darkened. "I'm afraid I have to rescind my offer, even if it was 800 years ago and we're bunch of professional killers who don't care about details like that. As an ex-Jedi I'm honour-bound to deliver you to justice. I'm sorry things won't work out between us," she said deadpan, as if serious.

Then suddenly she started laughing. "Kidding, hun. If you're good at taking force-users out, that makes you all the more useful. I used to be with the Jedi, for a while, then ditched them and joined Omega. Dunno how they used to be, but most of them are just a bunch of whiny, code-prattling fools with their head in the clouds."

 

[Hevana Martin]

Hevana looked taken aback when Siobhan took back her offer. She had not had any idea her fellow... well almost fellow merc had been a Jedi. Where before she had been full of hope and eager to start her new life, now she was crestfallen. Finally she had found a little bit of happiness in this new crappy future, and she had screwed it up. Just like she screwed up everything.

Hell, now she could not even afford the food she had just ordered. A hint of a tear formed in the corner of her eye as she realized she would probably have to whore herself out just to eat.

Then Siobhan started laughing and Hevana was startled again. "Oh, yes... clouds," she said in a subdued voice. "It was like that in my time too. Talked about stuff, but never actually did anything about it." As she spoke she forced a small smile and half hearted chuckle. It seemed like she was trying to be careful of what she said now lest she slip up again.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Siobhan was often a rather tactless person, she also considered herself to be witty and funny, something which was rather debatable. However, she saw how crestfallen Hevana was and noticed the tear forming in the corner of her eye. While quite careless careless and dense, the ex-Jedi was not deliberately hurtful. Well, not to people she liked at any rate. Moreover, when it came to people she didn't like she preferred to express said sentiment through the application of physical violence. Alas, that was not always possible.

In response she leaned forward and kissed Hevana, then spoke up in what she thought was an encouraging voice. "Hevana, it's ok, I didn't mean it like that, just making a joke. Not gonna lie, I don't like your Imp guys much. Figure if I'd been around back then, we wouldn't have been on the same side, hun," she said bluntly but honestly. "But I wasn't and I ain't gonna get all moralistic and judgemental about stuff that happened ages before anyone I've known was born. It's the ancient past and I don't care about that. Far as I'm concerned, you're gonna be a big asset to the Company."