Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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The Great Puppet Show

Kholek

An Ancient Rage Reborn
The machinations of the wealthy are something that the galaxy and every individual have been a part of. Those who control the cash flow control not only the macro scale of the galaxy, but they can reach out and pluck individuals out of the galaxy to play with in their twisted games. This is a tale of a duo of adventurers who have become pieces in a great game for the wealthy behind the scenes. A game involving fans of history, fans of drama, fans of suspense, of murder, and of betrayal. They all participate and while all aspects may not be covered, the events that transpire are controlled more by those who wield the almighty credit rather than any superstitious entity like the force.

...upon the table rested metals of all variety that had come together in a symphony of design and perfection. Metals that were gathered from across the galaxy to create as close of a replica as money could buy. No DNA had been saved from the past, no body officially recovered for them to have tested. Even if there had been, the great plague had wiped out any such knowledge that even the deepest of pockets could procure. Instead they went with what was possible to obtain by their wealth; that was the technology necessary, the engineers and scientists necessary, and the pieces necessary to make it all happen. Cash had switched between enough hands to make an accountants head spin and to make the whole transaction nigh impossible to track by any entity that wasn't specifically looking for it.

Life
Metal
Money
Flesh
Comaradarie
Suspense
Terror
Greed
Death

These elements lead up to the creation of what was before them. The inbred hate that flowed through the creature, the added memories inserted to bend the creature to what they desired, and the mechanical augmentations to create the creature they truly desired to call their own. That creature lay before the droid mounted camera that the board of investors were a part of. Their fingers tented or interlocked to hide the strings running from them into the governments of the galaxy. Whatever government pretended to play King had nothing without the backing of men such as these. A planned bank crash or a devaluation of currency in some other manner could decimate even the mightiest Republic armada, and soldiers of the Sith may fear their masters but without money to buy food they became just mountains of corpses.

On the table lay the historically accurate reconstruction of one of the most feared cybernetic warriors to ever step out of the darkness and into the light of the galaxy. It could make a history buff faint, an engineer weep at the beauty, and a Jedi to wet himself. It was a near perfect reconstruction down to the species used to grab it. All they were missing was the actual thing, a descendent of Sheelal, and a warrior who had waged war against the Jedi. Those were not options that their currency had been able to afford. Instead they had used it to steer a Pirate to their target, to bribe the tribe for their favored son, and to set up the vault that the Kaleesh would be tested and find his fate. Should the boy have failed to pass, the machinations would have started again. As it happened, the Pirate played her role to perfection and the boy would have won an Oscar, posthumously, for his performance.

The creation was done, all that was left to move their last pawn to allow their Rook to roam free across the board...
 

Kholek

An Ancient Rage Reborn
Kal'bey groaned as he was rolling himself out of the bunk and right onto the floor. He flopped onto a pair of boots and yesterday's clothes to lighten the impact. It was not easy getting used to a different planetary time whenever they were going to a new world and this was just one of the many side effects of that change. He couldn't get up and out of bed easily. His alarm clocked, satanical in nature, had a pair of wheels and rolled further than he could across the room with it's alarm blaring at a volume that made him think the ship was about to crash into a star every time he heard it. The Kaleesh's hands scraping at the ground to hoist himself up and to scramble on all fours after the little thing as he heard it constantly bumping into the wall. "[Shut up! Shut up!] he barked at it in Kaleesh before he got it in his grasp and hit the button before the device found itself smacking against the wall across the room.

His yellow gaze blinking as he wiped the sleep from them. He kept his room nearly pitch black with just enough light sources for him to be able to see; his desire to keep his face hidden from his generous host, though considering how much he was indebted to her for taking him in like this it didn't seem out of the question to reveal himself to her. As it was, however, he kept a fabric wrap for around his face when he slept and he was adjusting it now prior to making sure he was at least decent before he was stepping out into the light. A smattering of curses in Kaleesh and basic as the light of the hall was much brighter than he remembered it being and his four digit fingers, dual opposable thumb action, covered up his eyes. His eyes fluttered a bit before he was on the move and double checking that his pteruges were all the way on before possibly running across his ship mate.

His diet was rather different than her own though he was fully capable of eating her foods and he guessed she was the same with him. While his stomach was certainly interested in the events of breakfast, he was more curious to figure out if: A) she was actually awake and in the cockpit, and see if she knew how long before they were going to reach the planet. The two of them were supposed to rendezvous with another pair of hired mercenaries before setting down on the planet below and having to deal with the other archeologists who had lain claim to the temple before them. So he set to heading down the corridor to the cockpit to poke his head about to try and find Nizzalal'dira, the exotically colored humanoid captain.
 

Nizzalal'dira

Guest
Early to bed, early to rise.

Nizzalal'dira lounged in the cockpit pondering her guest. Kaleesh were peculiar creatures. She looked ridiculously mundane, eating a bowl of something non-specific but definitely bran related. You've got to keep regular, you know? Did her guest need to stay on top of his fibre intact? Why the thumbs? Better yet, what did his face look like? Such peculiar creatures.

The pirate sat cross-legged on her chair and frowned. They mystery of her guest almost bothered her. Almost. The twi'lek almost got her mind focused back onto the matter of the day, the adventure ahead but that train of thought was ruined by the whoosh of the door and the appearance of a certain reptilian creature's head.

“Good morning,” she said simply, studying him with her one good eye. Drat, his face was still covered. The mystery remained. She paused, looking down at the bowl of half-eaten tasteless cardboard that sat at the centre of her crossed legs. Nizza had no wish to continue eating the bland grain, but waste food? Not on her watch.

She held the bowl up, offering it to her guest. This was no five star hotel experience, or even two star. “Hungry?”
 

Kholek

An Ancient Rage Reborn
The sound of the metal sliding open was still a bit different to him. While he was growing more accustomed to it, he had no care for how it gave away his position whenever he entered a room. Kal'bey preferred to have a bit more control over who saw or heard him entering rather than letting the door announce his entry like some Prince. So when the voice of his companion rang out a second later he closed his eyes and kept himself from letting out a sound of annoyance to the whole situation.

"Yes, hello," while it wasn't food that he cared much for it was better than nothing and he wasn't going to deny his host's offer. He took it from her and moved to where he could peer out the view port better as he thumbed at the silverware. He lingered for a second before he was reaching up and undoing the lower wrapping of the facial coverings; which would only lead to it dropping excess down to keep his mouth area hidden from view but opened up enough that he could easily lift a spoon up into it with a slight tilt of his head. "Are we making good progress? Any knowings on the hunt?" His basic was a little broken but it was largely understandable as he communicated to her.

The Kaleesh's yellow gaze falling on her to pick up her one eye and try to focus on it while he listened for a response. Kal'bey's hand shifting though to start feeding himself as he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to have some warm food with how cool the ship was compared to what he was accustomed to on Kalee. It was different but it was good. He wanted to be out across the galaxy and he was able to sate his wanderlust with this alien and now they would be after a prize that he hoped would be great enough for him to upgrade away from small side quests that gave little reward or recognition.
 

Nizzalal'dira

Guest
Just watching him provided amusement.

There was something about this boy. His mannerisms, the way he moved, spoke and held himself all deepened the mystery of the Kaleesh. They were truly species apart, hailing from vastly different cultures and societies. He had a lot to learn, and thankfully @[member="Kal'bey Altik"] was now in the experienced hands of Nizzalal'dira, who had lived, loved, lost and also danced (because Twi'lek, duh).

She was sure to keep him right. Or maybe half right. You don't learn to stand in this Galaxy by being coddled. Make some mistakes, some enemies. Graze those knees on your first few steps into new life.

“Just playing the waiting game now,” she replied, finally taking her eye off of him and swivelling around to face the controls. They really were currently just dicking around, waiting for this rendezvous. The problem that came with interacting with mercenaries is that they came on several levels of professionalism, some were sharp, prompt and well worth the money. Others, well, you get what you pay for, don't you?

Now with her back turned to her guest, she decided to pop a question. One that had been bothering her since the moment he had got on her ship. “Why do you cover your face?” Nizza queried, blunt as a spoon. Those well-studied in their alien cultures might have cringed at such a question, but she was simply a woman curious, and if you don't know, why not ask?
 

Kholek

An Ancient Rage Reborn
The Kaleesh didn’t quite understand what she meant when she said the waiting game as he wasn’t quite up on all the slang when it came to using galactic basic. Understanding the language as much as he did was a point of pride and he wanted to make sure he understood as much of it as possible since he knew that interacting with the rest of the galaxy was the only way he could sate his wanderlust and keep from being trapped on Kalee. That placed him here and while he would prefer a warmer climate aboard the ship, he wasn’t going to make himself any more of a weight than he already was.

“Why? I do because—“ he hardly got to speak before there was a rattling of the ship and klaxons beginning to blaze all around them. The cockpit was turned into a noise machine with lights flashing from the sirens and all sorts of information lighting up on the controls in front of the two of them. He panicked and instinctively drew a blade into his hand from his hip. Feet spinning him towards the door in anticipation of an attack…

…”Initiate the start of the test.” A dismissive hand in the dark waved towards the aide hovering off to the side. The hidden features staring out across a screen that displayed camera angles from various satellites around the planet the two mercenaries were in orbit around. The room was illuminated only by the display panel in front of the unknown speaker to keep the participant of the video concealed from the camera that focused on him for the other observers of the Board. Gloved fingers appeared in a steeple in front of the puppeteer with a single digit moving to wave towards the screen to activate the motion sensor to flip to another monitor so that he could observe the attack as it began. His eyes fell upon the secondary monitor that showed various other shadows of the Board who were all watching the same display he was.

The coordinates that Nizzalal’dira had been given would have her ship in nearly the perfect location for the hyperspace event that was about to occur. The first ship that came out of hyperspace was another freighter that the duo was supposed to meet up with. It nose dived right away towards where Kal’bey and Nizzalal’dira were located. Out behind it appeared a Republic corvette, a second one appeared seconds later before both opened fire on the freighter.

The spray of anti-fighter laser canons tore through space after the elusive vessel. The two corvettes turned down to give chase to the freighter as it ran right towards the second one…

…The communications would roar to life, “the Republic caught us, bail on the mission!” Klaxons over the communication could be heard as the freighter zipped past Nizzalal’dira’s vessel and put them right in harms way from the corvette’s laser cannons would rip into the vessel that the two puppets were aboard: one directly paid and the other purchased.

Kal’bey jumped when the ship rocked like that. The yells over the communicator hadn’t bothered him, he knew the sound of battle. However the shift of the vessel from the laser cannons were plenty to dislodge the bowl from his grasp to send it across the floor with the crash of the bowl to the ground. “What’s happening?” He barked out in basic while he sheathed the blade to keep it out of the way to cause extra damage.
 

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