Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Public Stellar Service

Following the odd little meeting with Aadihr Lidos Aadihr Lidos and Aris Noble Aris Noble in the Coruscant Jedi Temple's garden, Brander had retreated to go "home." But he didn't really return home. His siblings had been relocated to some orphanage on a distant planet, and he had chosen to stay here with Alexandros Alexandros . Yet, he couldn't bring himself to go back to the apartment they shared. Today he had felt liek a failure yet again.

Instead, he headed to the garage where he had been hired to work. The shop owner had stepped out for a break about fifteen minutes prior, leaving Brander with free rein of the place—not that it meant he had free time. There was always something to do. He settled in, grabbing a sanding tool to remove the grit and rust from a piled up bucket of metal parts in need of cleaning. It was busy work, menial, but it suited him.

He didn't need the Force for this. He didn't need the Force to keep the shop running.

And so, he did. Seated behind the front desk, he leaned back in his chair, the rhythmic squeak of a small fan oscillating beside him. The hum of an old radio filled the quiet space, its worn-out speakers crackling as a faint tune played over the static.
 
Home, what was home? Some would say any place could be home, Tibera would tell them to shove it. Nowhere really felt welcoming to the mercenary, she'd seen dozens of cities and planets. From fertile jungles to grassy savannahs, and even the depths of alien oceans, y-et no place really clicked with her. Through all the battles, nothing ever felt like home for her.

So the woman would continue looking for a place that welcomed her, where she didn't feel so all alone. A task that would be made infinitely easier if her speeder weren't breaking down, "Top of the line model" her ass! Tibera strutted into the garage through an open bay door and looked around. She could see no one that looked like an owner. All she found inside was a young kid.

"Hey short stuff, you got a boss around here," Tibera said as she wiped her hands on her pants, attempting to rid them of engine grease. "Don't suppose you've got a boss around here that can speak with? I have a speeder with a faulty engine that I need looked at..."

Out front of the garage there was a cherry red landspeeder with a smoking engine bay, the machine barely able to lift itself off the ground. Not the most proud moment for a self-sufficient mercenary, one who always did her level best to fix her own problems. Now she was leaning over a smoking engine, relying on a young man for help.

Brander Brander
 
Tibera Jessen Tibera Jessen

Brander looked up from his work, his chair creaking slightly as he straightened. When he saw the newcomer, he quickly jumped to his feet.

"Uh... The owner's on his lunch break at the moment," he said, offering a quick smile. He moved toward a turbo-lift and began maneuvering it toward the speeder. "I can check you in and get your speeder set up for the boss, Ma'am."

He carefully pushed the large dolly-like turbo-lift beneath the speeder. It was a lot of work for someone his size, but he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. As he secured the speeder with thick straps, his hands and nails were stained with old blood—marks of previous, less-than-smooth jobs—but he didn't seem to notice or care. His focus was entirely on getting the job done.

"What happened to cause all this?"
 
"Pretty sure the coolant lines got snapped somehow," Tibera was trying to figure the possible problems out herself, she wasn't too sure anyway. "As for how it happened..."

Tibera stopped for a moment, looking at a series of small holes in the speeder's hood. Yeah that was probably be a pretty suspicious thing to explain. Maybe there was some innocuous problem she could blame it on? Damnation, she didn't want to get this kid in any trouble. If he asked too many questions, it could get a little ugly.

"No idea really, went through a rough side of Coruscant and then it started smoking like this."

It was a flimsy excuse, but it was the best one she could think up on short notice. If Tiber was lucky she'd be able to smooth talk her way through this, but being lucky wasn't exactly something she was notorious for...

Oh well, at least there was a good chance she'd get her speeder fixed. The place looked pretty legit, not like some of the chopshops around the lower levels. She could be wrong, but it looked like things were finally starting to go her way. At least in regards to her vehicle, the rest of her life could be better, but there was no way a kid with a spanner was fixing that.

"What do they call you anyway kid?"

Brander Brander
 
Tibera Jessen Tibera Jessen
Brander exhaled sharply through his nose, already rolling the sleeves of his coveralls up as he stepped closer. "Coolant line snapping, huh? Not the most common thing unless the whole system took a hit." He crouched beside the speeder, running a careful hand along the undercarriage. "Could be stress damage, but that'd take a lot of sudden impact—like a wreck or some real nasty potholes. Or…" His gaze flicked back up to the hood, to the pattern of holes clustered in the metal.

Yeah. Or that.

He didn't press the point—wasn't his place. But it was looking a lot less like wear and tear and a lot more like something put those holes there on purpose.

Brander straightened and gave the frame a light knock with the back of his knuckles before reaching for the hydrolic jack stand. "Let's get this thing up and see how bad it is." With practiced ease, he set the speeder up, propping the front end and sliding himself underneath. A few moments of quiet, a flick of his flashlight, and then—

"Yeah… coolant line's shot, alright." His voice came muffled from beneath the chassis. "Split clean in two, right near the mount. Could've been sudden pressure or a sharp impact. If it was debris kicking up, I'd expect a dent or a bend, but this…" He shifted slightly, running his fingers along the frayed end of the line. "It's clean. Too clean. Like something sliced through it."

He scooted out from under the speeder, dusting his hands off on a rag. "Best case scenario? Just the line itself. That's gonna run you about 250 credits for a full replacement and flush. But if the overheating did any damage to the radiator or the housing… could be closer to 600." He gave her a quick once-over, as if gauging whether or not she was going to argue the price.


Brander wiped his hands on his coveralls before finally answering her earlier question. "Brander," he said simply, tapping a grease-stained knuckle against his chest. "Boss handles most of the repairs around here, but I gotta run this by the boss before we get started. Shop policy."

He tilted his head slightly, waiting. "And you are…?"
 

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