Terminal Velocity (Outer Rim Coalition)

[Jorus Merrill]

ZONJU V

A fire of thorns and fuel cubes failed to hold out the desert night. No question about it, Jorus should have brought a blanket. On the plus side, he'd remembered the sausages. They sizzled and crisped over the fire on pointed sticks. A ragged circle of Judges and locals ate sitting on ruins or naked sand. For his part, Jorus leaned against a swoop bike and watched smoke blot out the sky. He could eat when the others had taken their share.

A light freighter wheeled through the smoke and touched down among the other ships in the canyon. A silver Wookiee growled a question.

“Yeah, that's the Nonesuch. Looks like Markus got through.” Jorus let himself relax in hopes of stealing tension from the group.

“Terminuss iss not like it wass,” a Barabel said. “Every sshipment rissks impound. Lawss and orderss.”

Jorus scratched his stubble. “I'll admit you've got a point. Used to be a lot rougher and a lot more freewheeling at Terminus before the Alliance fortified the feth out of it. Blame the First Order - Terminus holds the whole Rimward flank. You think things get strict over an Alliance fortress world, you should try to run a sketchy cargo down the Sanctuary Pipeline sometime.”

The Barabel's tongue flicked out and back. “Doessn't make it any eassier to ssmuggle through Terminuss.”

Jorus chuckled. “Smuggling ain't supposed to be easy, Graff. That's the idea. But yeah, you're not wrong. Getting certain things here to Zonju, or to Elysian or Ancora, needs getting through Terminus, and yeah, that's not as doable as it used to be.” He took a sausage off the fire and cooled it in the night wind. “Heck, same with Kal’Shebbol and Karideph, and most of our turf short of Arcadia. I've got nothing against the Alliance, and if they weren't there we'd be crawling with stormtroopers, but...yeah. Room for a whole lot of valid opinions. What do you folks think?”

 

[Delaney Wilder]

Walk was a new face amidst the chaos and dealings of the Outer Rim Coalition.

He had earned a small profit smuggling half a dozen crates of nova-crystals through Torrential. Most of his got tied-up into repairing the Daystar, while the rest went into a cache shared with [member="Delilah Keyes"]. They were still trying to scrounge up enough cash to either pay off Nuna and the Bantha or set-up their fall, so they would be finally free of 'em.

Slow progress.

"Issnt right." Stee (Gran, scar cutting through his mouth causing him to sizzle slightly) mumbled into the void left by Jorus' question. "Ussed to be rules, yeah? Core civilization kept to the Core."

"Gots no place here out the Rim. They push us out, where are we to go?"

Some mumbles of agreement, some shrugs, Walk stayed silent as got himself a sausage, hot hot hot, but the wind of night cooled it off plenty once he turned it 'round on the spit. "Boot of the Imperial, silk steel fist of the Alliance." Ducarte finally responded too after chewing through some of the meat. Tasted good. Jorus got an appreciative nod of thanks for that one. "Ain't a big difference, s'far as I can see, our livelihood gets choked out either way."

But that was the whole thing with civilization.

It would come whether you wanted it to or not.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]​

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Walker Ducarte"]

Nearby another vessel split the night. A Jast 3 Freighter, heavier edition and disguised as a Gas Hauler touched down. As it's primary core wound down Nathan was inside, sliding his armor vest over his body and velcroing the sides shut. Then he holstered his trusty Judge Revolver and swept up a nearby tan trench coat.

It was dirty, and stained at the hem with oil, but hey.

It was his Sunday best.

The ramp whooshed and clicked, servos straining to keep the ol bucket named Backwater Vengeance in one piece. He grinned as heavy boots thudded down the ramp, and then transitioned to crunching sand. He was the newest Judge among the group, but already had quite the rep as a Pirate hunter.

"Jorus, Walker. Always a pleasure Gentlemen!" He rumbled, sitting down with more of a plop than any grace,

His behind met the log, and he touched the cigar to the flames, setting it back between his lips alight.

"I take it things are well? You two gentlemen look to be engaged in some deep conversation eh?"

His dirty glove stroked his glorious goatee.

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] Ξ [member="Walker Ducarte"]

Sanya had taken a spot close by the fire with her legs crossed and palms open facing the flames. It would crack and spit embers up into the air as the wood burnt. She was enjoying the heat while she waited for sausages to make it's way to her. She had also bought food like baked goods something for the sausages to be wrapped in, something to make the meal more filling. It was rather relaxing looking up to the night sky as people got caught in conversations. It made everything feel simple for a short moment. She heard the name of the new world that made her ears twitch towards jorus. "What was that?" She said as her mind caught up to the words that had been spoken.

"I mean we could make new routes the rim has many nuts and crannys undiscovered. It would take time but that's a long term solution. The short term will always be difficult. Move stuff in small bits becomes costly and not worth it. Move stuff in big bits your likely to be hit but authority's or pirates." She had finally been passed the packet. Sanya took one out using her claw to cut the skin between the two can connecting sausages. "To be fair though someone on the inside of the alliance's customs would be good."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sanya Val Swift"] [member="Nathan Sandusky"] [member="Walker Ducarte"]

“Lovely, thanks.” Jorus wrapped a sausage in a chunk of bread with a nod to Sanya. “Oh, hey, Sandusky. Grab some food and pull up a patch of sand. We're talking Galactic Alliance.”

He chewed in contemplation. “You got a point, Stee, but it ain't been that way for a while. Silvers, Sith Empire, Pubs, Fringe, Omega, Confeds, Abrion - Core folks have been throwing their weight around on the edge since my kid was knee-high to a nuna. But that's just me griping. I'd rather think like Sanya, think solutions. There's routes that go around the Alliance fortress worlds and all that. And yeah, no harm in making connections, keeping your ear to the ground. I'd tread lightly on straight-up bending Customs folks, though. Wouldn't go over well.”

 

[RC 212]

[member="Sanya Val Swift"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Nathan puffed on his cigar, letting the sticky blue smoke join the aroma of those sizzling sausages. His tummy rumbled and he grunted, snatching one off the fire, and popping the whole thing in his mouth. Ration bars and bug protein only got ya so far.

"Wow that's hot."

He chewed fast, and then uncorked a flask he produced from his pocket. He took a swig and passed the backwater moonshine to the left.

"Alliance eh? They ain't got much of a presence left from what I hear. That defeat at Hoth nearly did in half their fleet. Only thing ya gotta worry bout is picket cruisers and the like. Tend to be fast, tend to rove far."

He took another puff, this time exhaling out his nose and readjusting his beret.

"I like ol girls Idea. Bending customs would work, but only on the very edge. The closer you get inwards, the less it's gonna work. For that, you'd need a system of Courriers that have actual business being there as law abiding citizens. That's where I'd put my money."

He stroked his beard.

"Come to think of it, my sister Cait runs Ice from Naboo to Sullust. Could hit her up, see if any freelancers or Freighter jockeys wanna get thier hands lil' sullied."

 

[Asher]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] // [member="Nathan Sandusky"] // [member="Sanya Val Swift"] // [member="Walker Ducarte"]​

Thin cape waved in the wind against bare arms and armored back. Wasn’t much of a smuggler, wasn’t much of a judge, wasn’t much of anything as a matter of fact, but that wasn’t to say he was nothing at all. Aton went where he was needed, and where he was needed was more often than not wherever pests were. Rancors, nexu, darksiders, acklays, it mattered very little once you put conscience aside for what was right, and what was right was all he strived to do. There was no way to go home to Yavin, no interest in helping the Mandalorians either. He was a man stripped of internal strife by means of forfeited importance on either end. Mandalore was destroyed and Yavin was under Sith occupation. When stripped of that he was little more than a Rekali with a rifle in place of a plow.

He hunted because it suited him, travelled because it appealed to him. Aton was free to make his own road, and as much as he wanted to think that it brought him a measure of comfort he’d manage to find himself little more than a dose of confidence enough to start making some waves in the ‘young and restless, and also armed’ circles that more often than not also intermixed with smugglers one way or the other.

And he was a Rekali in the end. The offspring of Aaralyn Rekali, who in turn had been the daughter of Ember Rekali. The notion to quit or cry because life had suddenly gotten harder had never occurred to him.

Approaching the cozy crowd by the fire he slung his rifle over his shoulder and waved a hello. Aton didn’t know anyone around, but he had certainly seen posters of one of them. Jorus Merrill whose daughter he had only ever so briefly met when he was in his early teens.

… What was the Pack up to these days anyway?

Was he even ever a part of it, really?

Questions of no importance.

“Hey.” Really, there was no need to complicate things any more than necessary. A simple hello spoke a lot more than people seemed to assume of it. “Saw the fire from afar and figured I’d swing by.”

Wait, that didn’t sound very sane.

“Uhh:.. I’m perfectly sane, I promise you.” He chuckled with his clarification and a raise of both hands spread out before him for good measure. “Aton Rekali. It’s nice to meet you all.”

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Aton Rekali"] Ξ [member="Nathan Sandusky"] Ξ [member="Jorus Merrill"] Ξ [member="Walker Ducarte"]

The woman watched the sausage slowly browned and cracked as it cooked over the heat. It wouldn't be much longer till it had cooked right through. "Yeah I guess your right. Customs would be a bit of a stretch and extensive probably. I can cut us some time on the new routes however but they would need tweaking. Unfortunately the imperials, are aware of some and they go dangerously close to their territory. The corellian run for some time was my way of shifting stock without going through alliance space. Simply because I don't trust them."

She'd turn her orange eyes to the man wearing the hat with a sarcastically serious face. "Also who you calling old huh? I'll let you know I was born with silver hair, I didn't just grow into it. I mean it's gotten lighter over the years but still not old." There was a slight smile on her lips showing she wasn't actually been at all serious. At that point their group got one more. "No one questioned you wasn't aton. Grab a spot. I'm Sanya, he's john that's walker and Nathan?" The woman was tried to remember all the new names. Since her involvement she'd been introduced to so many and it was challenging to remember them all.

 

[Elaine Thul]

[member="Sanya Val Swift"] [member="Aton Rekali"] [member="Nathan Sandusky"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Walker Ducarte"]

Elaine came camping as well, to join some of other leaders from the out back. They where talking about supply problems, something she need to resolve as well. Not only because she needed to get her weapons out, as well other Elysian exports. She also wanted to make sure refugees from the conflicts where not held up, if they wanted to come to her home planet. She was not actually in charge, their was a council, but she did have say over things. She listen to them all, the main issue as she understood it was Terminus a Galactic Alliance fortress world. The war between the First Order and them had made things worse, she was not very wise about space matters. She had a bite of her burger, and drank some water. Then asked Is it not possible to plot new star lanes, say between us and say the silver jedi? She did wonder, as after all some one must plotted these in the first place. Though their may be reasons why they could not, but she did not know them, and had a feeling she was about to be educated, in why not.

 

[Delaney Wilder]

[member="Nathan Sandusky"] | [member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Elaine Thul"] | [member="Sanya Val Swift"] | [member="Aton Rekali"]​

​

"Rekali, eh? Relationship to the Clan then?" Might have sounded like Walk was wary. Might have sounded that way, because he was wary, but not for the reasons they might expect. He had walked away from the Clans, left Mandalore, left their ways behind (for the most part), even toasted when he had heard about what had happened to Mandalore itself. Might have regretted that toast later, but there you had it.

Few people knew his roots though and Walk liked to keep it that way.

"At any rate, most of us got a few screws loose, wouldn't be here if we weren't. Welcome." From there Walk looked back to Nathan and shook his head.

"Don't mistake a bloody nose for a KO, mate, those two giants fighting in a league we ain't even dreaming of. Best we can hope for is not getting stepped on in the middle of it." A shrug of the shoulders and Walk took another bite from his sausage. Was a good one though, pleasant.

"Thul's right though. We should look into finding new shortcuts, backwater routes. Ain't too sure about the Silvers though. They practically wiped out Kessel when they took it. Slavers and the like, aye, but there were a fair amount of smugglers among 'em, couldn't be otherwise."

Been asserting their presence in Wild Space ever since.

Walk had an allergy for authority personas and the Silvers were the grand poobah of authority around those parts for the better part of two decades now.

 

[Elaine Thul]

She looked at [member="Walker Ducarte"], he did not simply dismiss her idea, though the silvers where not an option. This was shame to her, as she hoped to get trade to them, via old friend [member="Arisa Yune"]. She then had another planet in mind, one which may be more for their suiting. she put her hands up and said Fine not the silvers then, but what about say Tatooine. It is, and let's be honest and no offence to any of you, a smuggler paradise. She knew some of these where after all mostly smugglers, and she also knew being from the core originally with most of her people, she was a bit of an outsider. That and she did serve under the one sith for awhile as double agent, and some unfortunate events on alderaan lead her here, into exile. Though since then her course had become clear to her, to do best to kill sith and those that serve them, and help her people anyway she can.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Sanya Val Swift"]

"Well then. I never." And he left it at that, turning the cigar in his mouth so it burned evenly.

That's when the newcomers came and he dipped his head and gave a short two finger salute.

[member="Aton Rekali"]

"Nice to meet ya folks. Yea Nathans the name."

[member="Walker Ducarte"] [member="Elaine Thul"]

And then the Silver Jedi came up and he almost choked on the smoke of his cigar.

"Silvers? No no no sister. We don't want to tangle with those snooty, high horse ridin' do gooders. They'd just as soon sell us out as try and help us. Besides lately they've taken on a much more....militant approach. No. Well at any rate, I won't."

He stared into the fire.

 

[Asher]

[member="Nathan Sandusky"] // [member="Elaine Thul"] // [member="Walker Ducarte"] // [member="Sanya Val Swift"] // [member="Jorus Merrill"]​

​

Smile took shape on his lips from Sanya’s welcome. She was Sanya then, that was Jorus as the kid had suspected, that was Walker and the last man on the roll call was Nathan. Another soul entered the field without introduction and Aton turned to look. Had no idea who it was, but considering she was here she couldn’t be all that bad, right? Jorus sort of had that reputation and Aton wouldn’t question it. Of course he didn’t look like the Jorus he remembered, but there were greater travesties to be worried about.

“Clan Rekali, yeah.” Aton would begin as he took a seat by the fire yet mention nothing more of it. It didn’t really feel like it mattered anymore. “Well, screw loose or not I’d rather trust someone too loose than too uptight. Easier that way, less drama.”

The others spoke, Aton listened to take in what they were talking about to begin with. It did indeed seem like smuggling, just as he had assumed. For what reason eluded him, but they seemed to be talking routes, as well as trash about the Silver Order, but Aton was hardly one to stop, judge or intervene.

“Tatooine has its appeal, sure, but why avoid something just because it’s painful?” Aton gave the others another look. “I’d rather focus efforts on creating an easy and convenient way to slip in and out of First Order, Alliance or Empire territory, or even Silver Space without them being any the wiser than try to find a longer way around them simply because they suck.”

“Not a smuggler myself, but I know a few.” Shrug. “Resourceful people, if a bit cocky. Pretty sure there is a way if minds were just put into it.”

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Nathan Sandusky"] [member="Aton Rekali"] [member="Sanya Val Swift"] [member="Elaine Thul"] [member="Walker Ducarte"]

“Sounds like all kinds of options to me, which is good 'cause we’re all kinds of people. Only thing I ask: don't get the lot of us into fights we don't need, or get us in bed with genuinely nasty folks.

“I like what you said just now, Rekali, about finding good ways through instead of going the long way around. It's not like we can drive a new lane through First Order or Alliance territory without getting spotted and shut down, but there's other ways. Ship disguises, cloned telesponders, drive emission tweaks, limpet ships, boats inside boats, deep-legend covers, stealth runs with tractor shrouds - options aplenty.”

 

[Asher]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

The kid gets taken aback for a second, looking very surprised and just as confused at what Jorus was saying. Mouth opening to speak,

"What?" He raised his finger to point at Jorus. "Uh, yeah, of course. What I- he said."

The kid nods his head and pretends he understood even half of what Jorus just said.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

"Sorry, too much jargon. There's all kinds of ways to slip a cargo through heavily regulated space. As many tactics as there are smugglers, really." Jorus looked around the fire. "What're some ways you folks have come up with?"

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Nathan grunted.

"I go with disguise all the time. My vessels actually a Jast 3, I just disguise it as a Gas Hauler Freighter. Also a good set of manifests helps. Sometimes I have a few tweaks done, but that and guile get me where I need to go."

 

[Sanya Val Lerium]

[member="Nathan Sandusky"] Ξ [member="Jorus Merrill"] Ξ [member="Aton Rekali"] Ξ [member="Elaine Thul"] Ξ [member="Walker Ducarte"]

Sanya looked up at jorus with her mind set split in many directions. "Well when my company is back at full operations again I wouldn't mind slipping the necessities in with my product. My engineering droids are pretty popular amongst industrial worlds and my transports very dearly get checked. The only times they do is when they go through areas that have a big spice problems and stoways. With losing that facility on xocron and the loss of sekalus I'm kinda struggling. I mean right now making ends meet is difficult. Most my savings and retirement fund has gone into building up new homes for my people. Even they are feeling it as the economy is kinda shot."

If things had gone better in the trial she knew that her company would be doing better and able to produce the amount of droids needed to make the rebuilding faster. After all sixty percent of already built droids had been left behind on sekalus. "But yeah right now I'm limited to the facilities on kesh. Vehicle production has become minimal and we had to install some droid lines. Next month if things go well there should be enough homes to house my people so we can get started on rebuilding companies that would supply the most jobs with a good income. Once that's done, my network will be back up." Her tail would flick as she adjusted how she sat whilst putting her sausage into the bun.

She'd look back up at john with a face about to ask a question. "I mean if you can spare the support and you'd be okay with it. I would appreciate the go ahead to set up some factorys around the coalitions space. I'm aware that there is a large plot of land up for sale on jelucan and xocron has a lot of space due to it's low population. Utapau is also a good location too. I mean they are all close by and well spread in coalition space. Means range would be wide for the goods delivery."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Nathan Sandusky"]

"You're kidding - that's a Jast Three under there? Nice work. Love a good disguise mod, especially if it's functional. Beauty."

[member="Sanya Val Swift"]

"Far as the Coalition's concerned, you paid your debt for some things and got acquitted for the rest. Doubt it'd be a problem for you to start expanding again. Heck, the more jobs get created, the better. And if you're comfortable using internal company shipping, Utapau to Coalition space, to run the occasional problematic but unimpeachably necessary cargo..." Jorus impaled a few more sausages on thorn twigs and braced them over the fire. "...well, feth, I could see you making some real friends that way."

The night was getting downright chilly. He shifted a little closer to the firepit, sand rough through his trousers. A few grains had worked themselves down his boots and through his socks, but like feth was he going to take them off here. Not a question of dignity, just a matter of temperature.

 

[Elaine Thul]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Sanya Val Swift"] [member="Nathan Sandusky"] [member="Aton Rekali"] [member="Walker Ducarte"]

She smiled as she listened to everyone talk, she was happy just to be out of the shadow of her housecarls, having some food and making some new friends. Though she was in doubt, that [member="Captain August "]was not far or one his men was watching them all. He was very good at his job, and his job was to make sure she was okay. Force only knew what he would do if she got boyfriend, as he does not like her out of sight. She leaned forward as she took another small bite of her burger, she was trying to make sure none of fat, got on to her purple dress. She then listened to other ideas , of getting round the Galactic alliance and The First order. She decide to offer another suggestion, I am not sure about the first order, but the Galactic Alliance uses ships from many different contractors. Why not just buy some, at the lower end so not to arouse suspicion. Then just wait for a battle. between them both and try and copy some of the transponder codes.

She then heard Sanya speak, she was unsure what her crimes where, but it was none of her business. Then she asked about expanding her company, and Jorus gave her permission. So she decide to ask Sanya, If you want to expand and make some factories, may I suggest Elsyian. Elsyian has lot refugees, and do get work for lot of them, mostly farming and militia training. As well as other things, but the wars and the political instability of core worlds, now the the republic is dead. We get lot more than we can find work for, I am sure you could find work force, and the inward investment would be welcome. She left that with her, as she decide not to drink water, but glanced at a beer, it something she had never had before, and wonder if she should try one.