The Lord of Stars

[Yoru Shakou]

It was a dingy little cantina on some backwater of a planet in the Outer Rim Territories, and that was all that she could remember at that point. Her hand gripping the small clay vessel that was supposed to be a cup. Looking into the empty little thing, she set it down, nearly breaking the brittle object just by putting it back on the table. It had been a while since she had any means to get off world, and even those few credits she was able to snatch off a passing pirate or thief were begin to dwindle. She needed someway to get away from the little dirt ball of a world.

The only problem though was the lack of credits to even purchase a ship, or rather there was more than just there. Where would she even find someone willing to sell a ship on this world? It was a question that came to mind as she began to tap her fingers against the table as she sat in the dark booth in the corner. She liked her seating arrangement, preferring to being around others, though also giving her a chance to listen in to a few choice conversations.

One that had really caught her attention was a couple of smugglers bragging about some big haul they had. Of the couple crew members even present, all she could gleam from their little whispers was a hint that it could be artifacts from some world they had come across. Either way it was enough of a reason to peak her interest, and her ire due to her previous long history when it came to archaeological digs and items.

Moving her hand down to her right side, she began to hold herself back as best she could. Not wanting to take any open actions at that moment, she did understand the need for information. At the same time though an ugly side of her began to rear its head. An obsession to find out what was on that ship, and of course to find out if the keys were left in the ignition so to speak.

[member="Lord Dissero"]
[member="Dashal Vance"]
[member="Thryykarr"]

 

[Dashal Vance]

What could be described as a shriek-hawk's nest of cabling was currently coiled around and at some points interlaced together upon the cantina's roof. Aside from the presence of hundreds of feet of the rubber shielded coils, various metallic antennae strewn about the expanse, but all facing a singular direction. There was even a large refurbished satellite dish in play being feverishly maneuvered back and forth by a less than happy Hapan. Dust and grime clouds sent up from every step on this weathered roof, and the boy was certainly having a difficult time attempting to rig up something that should be capable of punching a hole in the debris field above the planet into space itself. By the sound of it though, that was going to take more or less a miracle to pull off. One was for certain, Dashal Vance was one unhappy slicer.

"Backwater planet." He grunted, shifting the dish again and checking his coordinates. "Piece of forsaken poodoo, not a functional junction in sight." Dash grumbled shifting the dish this way and that, barely making out more than static on his transceiver. Most everything up here was a jury-rigged nightmare, and he was desperately trying to make-do with heavily limited resources. The condition of the array, and the planet itself putting him a far more sour mood than he generally liked. Dirt and grime were caked his face as the conditions for the job were far less than sanitary. "Oh Kriff it all!" He shouted, kicking the dish with his right food and pacing back over to the jumble of cabling. "Next fething client who wants data in a dust-bowl is paying for it through the nose." The perturbed and frustrated youth hefted another length of cabling onto his shoulder and started to drag it back to the motley array he'd been working on.

Dash was generally a rather lively fellow, with no shortage of sarcastic flair in his motor mouth. Today was just not his day though, and that mostly due to the location. He really tried to stay away from the barren rocks littered with dust, sand, or a mix of both. They were filthy inhospitable places that made his tech all but useless in their arid and heavy corrosive climate. The collective brilliance of the brothers who had hired the slicer put him on this poor excuse for a civilized planet in order to setup a relay station, so they could bounce a signal this far out into the Unknown Regions. They wanted a private network, and Dash had thought this would be a lot less complicated and irritating than it was already being. Two hours behind schedule, and he wasn't even halfway done. Half of this was not even his area of expertise, this was an engineer's job, not a slicer. Apparently he was wearing different hats for this one.

"Of course....why would you have an internal dampener? You obviously want to MELT the karking cables as you're using them. Fine...I guess I'll have to go find you one!" Yes, he was literally yelling at the circuit panel on the satellite dish, and what's more he was losing the argument. Turning from the dish, he moved to the side of the cantina, and gripped the thick cabling, repelling down to the surface, and landing with a nice soft dust cloud as his feet found pay-dirt. Moments later the frustrated slicer pushed the door of the establishment wide open and walked right up and behind the bar. Without asking, or even really caring to explain himself he wrestled some ancient wires from the holo-emitter that served as the bar's only one screen entertainment. It was small, and it wasn't even really that holographic. It projected onto a physical screen of all things. Archaic! A heavy hand whipped around and clutched his shoulder.

"Ey, whaddya think you're doing kid?"

"Ugh..don't have time for questions. You want reception to come through -ever- again, you're gonna let me fix this." He warned the bartender without missing a beat and plucking the dampener from that jumbled mess and turning to face the larger man. "Also, in exchange for getting you a free sub to Galaxy Girls unlimited, and the Smashball channel there better be an ice-cold Jawa Juice waiting for me when I get back." The bartender/manager was quite stunned, and had no words to say as the kid forcefully extracted what he needed and turned to leave. A glance in his peripheral vision caught Idonia and a slick smile spread and then vanished as he went back outside to continue his labor. "Nerve Burner." The last meant for the man whose turbo-lift didn't reach the top flight, or specifically; the bar owner.

[member="Idonia Devreaux"]

 

[Doctor Azure]

Thryk couldn't believe the backwardness of this place. There was nearly no holonet connection in the whole sector, and Thryk couldn't even pull up the coordinates he'd been sent without making his gauntlet computer seize up.

Damn.

He stepped off the transport, looked around the dingy little spaceport in the dingy little town. Even the planet was relatively small, and covered in dirt. It was kriffing astounding. He saw a little cantina with something witty printed on the wall in glowing Huttese. When he walked into the bar, he saw.... Smashball. Why was there smashball on, in a place where his computer wouldn't even work?

Thryk looked around for his contact, a woman in green armor. She apparently had a skilled slicer with her, which is how they'd gotten in contact in the first place. So where were they?


[member="Idonia Devreaux"][member="Dashal Vance"]

 

[Yoru Shakou]

With the quick glance there was only enough time to respond with a simple gesture, of which was a deft rolling of her eyes to the smile. There had been far too many glances and smiles thrown her way with the additional drink or two that the bartender would slam down onto the table. In fact as she sat quietly in the corner of her booth listening to those around her, there sat at least twenty or so drinks at the far edge of the table where the bar tender had placed them. Not a single one of the drinks was touched, with the only glass in front of her having been the drink she purchased for herself. Again though the burly man came by and dropped another drink which she merely ignored. Quietly she brought her hand back down to her holster, running her fingers against the handle of her blaster pistol before pulling her hand back up. A quick grab of her own drink was followed with the fluid motion of downing what was left before she slipped out of her booth.

Taking that moment to look around the cantina, she noticed only a handful of people in the room proper with a few more in the back watching some poor Twi'lek girl dancing on the stage. Sighing she took a moment to speak up, only after she counted the full tally of the drinks. Her hand quickly grabbed one of them to pull it away before she turned and raised it.

"Drinks on the table."

Her own little way of saying that the drinks she was leaving untouched were free for anyone willing to take them. Of course the moment after she slipped away the table was beset upon by the patrons in the cantina. A smirk on her lips as she made her way to the entrance before stepping to the side. A Wookie wasn't something she felt the need to piss off at that moment by bumping into it before she made her own way out of the cantina. As she stood there she sighed, thinking about what she was going to do and realizing that it was probably a bad idea in its own way. That still didn't stop her as she made the small climb to the roof and smirked as she looked over the wires. The grumbling and general argument with the cables told her she was in the right place.

Quietly walking along, she stayed a few steps away as she watched. Looking over the slicer's shoulder so to speak before she stifled a giggle to herself and set the glass down. Crossing her arms over her chest she continued to watch before finally deciding to speak up.

"I hope you don't plan to turn that thing on. If you do give me a warning so I can at least get off of this roof before you overload the circuits and cause the whole cantina to burst into flames. I may want a nice holovid of that moment."

[member="Thryykarr"]
[member="Dashal Vance"]

 

[Dashal Vance]

A series of tones and beeps were emitted in wild erratic pattern as the regulator was being installed. Wires stuck out in every direction like miniature tentacles reaching for some form of electronic life. There was little to be found of that variety on the roof. With the constant and aggravating wind that would blow a few dust clouds over the area, and the less than up-to-date manner of tech that had been congregated, it was a fething miracle that it was even responding to the crimping and connecting of the few wires between itself and the internal dampener the slicer was installing. This was really not his gig, and while he understood the mechanics of this since he was ten, it didn't meant the hands on experience of trying to rig this was anything of a second nature. Dash normally excelled in what he did, normally breaking records, or impressing his clients in some fashion. This however was an unmitigated disaster and he well knew it. Another few sparks popped and sizzled along the bare ends of the wires before a sound was made that sounded mechanical in nature. The satellite thrummed to life and shifted a bit in the process.

"You're welcome. Now, can we try and get something resembling a signal?" He asked the dish in an incredulous manner while he scooted out from the control panel and rolled to his feet. That was just one part of the issue he was dealing with. Getting the defunct dish to broadcast a signal was one thing, getting a signal to it, that would be encrypted and shot far enough to hit an errant S-thread was an entirely different matter. That would require a lot more power, and even more patience. The Hapan knew one thing for certain, after this was over - he was going to murder so many Ewoks on the Endor edition of Trooper Terror; the Galaxies longest running FPS series in the holocades. "Now let's see how far out we can get." Dash surmised as he pulled over a cart that hosted an assortment of C-grade tech, complete with buttons, knobs, and dials. "I must have done something really bad in a previous life to deserve this." He shook his head and got to work.

Normally he was a rather alert Hapan, mainly from necessity - but he was too engrossed in a job he was losing credits on to notice further activity on the roof. Either that, or the woman in jade green armor was a master of stealth and had been soft-footing her maneuvers like an expert assassin. Perhaps even a little of both. Switches and toggles were thrown as the slicer played with the dials like he was spinning digital music for a Corellian beat-box. The sounds and tones of the ancient equipment whirled up and down on the signal scale, while he attempted to hear the ambient noise of an S-thread by ear. That was a lot more difficult than he generally like to work - and far more primitive a method. He would of rather been lounging in his personal cave with all the plush of current tech at his greedy fingertips. His finger immediately ceased their flow when a voice from behind him called out. He hadn't even placed the giggle; he was in tuned in.

"Sweet Queen Quinella!" Dash exclaimed as he spun around to lock eyes with Idonia. Actually it took more than a few seconds to get to her eyes - evident by the creeping smile on his smudged face. Oh-ho lady. His Hapan mind recited as he attempted to compensate for his lack of grace be taking a step back from the cart and running a hand through his spiked locks. Not much would deter the youth from a job, but she would do quite nicely. "Bright eyes, a fire would be progress - believe me." He gave a small snort of derision before glancing back at the still beeping set of consoles. "This entire thing may be either work or fry us some Werris eggs, can't right tell yet." The Hapan warned the woman as he checked a few more signals, and figured while he at least had the pleasure of highly attractive company, he could stand the Braze a few more hours - that is he could ever this setup to function. Stability wasn't really in the cards - but he was just hoping for functional. "It's honestly just Pure Pazzak at this point."

[member="Idonia Devreaux"] | [member="Thryykarr"]

 

[Yoru Shakou]

Shaking her head slightly, her eyes ran over the mess that he had managed to build upon the roof before she let out a heavy sigh. Tapping her foot slightly, she began to count off in her head, looking at what was available. The thing that she noted as the most problematic was the jumble of wires that tore along from the main switch box, along with a few older pieces of tech. Of course there was another problem and that was entirely the inexperience of the man whom had been hired to work on the setup. Quietly sitting the drink down, a glass of blue milk as it were she stepped forward and spoke up.

"Out of the way milk drinker."

It was an uncommon insult for an uncommon situation as she approached where he was standing at that moment. With a light tap to his shoulder, more of a gentle pushing him out of the way, she got a better look at what was being worked with on hand. Turning back to the dish and control panel she merely rolled her eyes before approaching it. Of course what she was about to do might get a shout or two, though it was going to help. Without any further words she grabbed the control panel and tore it from where it was, along with pulling the wires from it which made the beeping slow down to a loud hissing torrent of white noise.

Thinking nothing of it though she turned her attention to the signal dish before she pulled it from its mounting. Flipping it back over with its main arm down, she tore off the small casing in the back. A few adjustments were all that would be needed before she pressed the panel back into place. It was a simple signal booster that didn't take all that time to install, of course she had a few tricks up her sleeves from working on backwater worlds with archaeological digs before. Remounting the dish on its bracket, she turned once more to the control panel. Her work wouldn't be one consisting of a tangled mess of cables as she carefully connected a handful of wires to their right place.

"It's not pure pazzak when you do it right and know what you're doing. Now give me that hyrdospanner and that old R2 unit dome."

Her arm stretched out as she pointed towards the cart and table with a couple of tools on it.

[member="Dashal Vance"]

 

[Dashal Vance]

Admittedly, Dash was one distracted fellow - with the jade hodgepodge of armor hugging to the curves of a woman that was just a decade his senior - but the curves were in all the right places. The same could be said of his smile, that formed into a sheepish stupid grin. At least that was his default state before she found annoyance to be too much and decided to act. The gentle push to his shoulder had him spinning about and raising those goggles to the crown of his head. The inexperience of Dash as an engineer was obvious to those practiced in the profession - but it hadn't stopped him from picking up a thing or two. The sheer fact that he hadn't caught anything on fire and was actually getting somewhere spoke to a level of innate understanding and a decent level of knowledge. In point of fact, he knew exactly what was needed, but without the perfect list of parts cataloged in his knowledge banks, he was at a loss at how to improvise. Code he could work with - he could make your hair curl with the things he could do with raw data. The physical component side of things though was not his strongest suit.

"Only milk I drink has rum in it pushy." He smirked, well aware that her thin insult was another way of calling him both young and inexperienced. Well if she could teach him anything about experience, he'd welcome it - especially with those legs of hers. It was a good thing she wasn't telepathic like some of the Forcey types out there. His thought-life could land him in a world of hurt. Idonia reminded him though of the forward thinking behavior of the women on Hapes. She had that self-sufficiency about her. It wasn't until she started forcibly ripping things apart that his attention diverted. "Careful, that took me hours to....gah!" Dash said clamoring forward and trying to save some of the circuits, only grasping in futility. "If I wanted to junk this, I could of asked the Wookie up here, ya know?" He didn't see the plan as she did - couldn't even grasp the concept at the moment, all he saw was wanton destruction of something he'd been toiling at for hours in the hot sun and the braze. Dash shot her a teal eyed look of condemnation.

To add insult to an already injured ego, she even managed to wrench free the dish and rip off the arm. Dash didn't think himself weak, but it his lean form and muscle mass was built for speed, agility - not demolitions of satellite arrays. Wires were popping out, sparks flew -- and not the doey eyed puppy love of the verse, no actual sparks from electrical circuits that would never work again. His jaw dropped slightly as he fought the urge to push her out of the way to try and salvage whatever was left. Fingers clenched in digit-less gloves as the slicer groaned and stomped off with his hands on his head. She wasn't even part of this job, and now he was sure he'd be toast in trying to put together anything. Force knows that the bartender had already lost all of his pathetic holonet signal by now.

"You're like a trained wampa...without the training." He scoffed as she started to do something akin to what he thought an engineer would. His own comment about Pazzak being thrown back in his face as she absently pointed to the cart, asking for things that just didn't go together at all, at least not in his head. "Lady you sure you've done this before? I'm fairly certain that bent metal and frayed wires does not a signal get." He said, and however reluctant he was to actually help in this mad endeavor, he was bringing over the spanner and astromech droid dome for her to use. She was going to take charge no matter what he said, so he thought better of it, and decided to simply enjoy the view. That simply meant handing her what she wanted and trying not to lose it. Propping both arms up on the dish and resting his chin on his palms, teal eyes glued to her, and what she was doing.

[member="Idonia Devreaux"]

 

[Yoru Shakou]

"That's why you don't hire a Hapan for a job suited for a Corellian."

Though she figured she had said it under the breath, she knew that it was possibly still loud enough for the male to hear. When he did return with the astromech dome and the spanner that she had requested, there wasn't a single thank you, just a rapid plucking of the items from the hands that held it. With that she was back to work immediately as she looked back to the dish before setting the old R2 dome down, and with a bit of force from a nearby screwdriver, she managed to pry away some rust from the compartment that held its own full spectrum transceiver, managing to get the dish out before setting the old dome down. Pushing her way pass for a moment, she grabbed what appeared to be a set of mounting brackets, along with a couple extra loose bolts that had seemingly begun to roll around as they were kicked now and again.

"A near decade on backwater planets on archaeological digs. I think I've done this before."

Once more her answer wasn't exactly directed at him as much as it was just thrown out there. Her mind and focus now entirely on what she was doing before the final snaps of the bolts could be heard as they wouldn't tighten any further. Returning to the antenna dish which now held a mounted R2 unit dome on it, she looked back up to the young man that was leaning against the dish and watching her before she rolled her eyes.

"Make yourself useful for a bit and drag that cart over here. Let's see what else you managed to dredge up from its grave."

That last jabbed was more directed at the items she had to work with, as a large part of it was junk or rather in such a state that it was nearly useless unless one had the skill to repair it or splice it with a handful of other items around. It was also a needed distraction so she'd have a couple of seconds without being stared out as she dropped down and rolled onto her back. Looking up at the dish and the exposed wiring of the mounted R2 dome now as she began to splice the wires of the two together.

[member="Dashal Vance"]

 

[Dashal Vance]

Normally an engineer and a slicer combining their prowess could afford limitless potential, but that only worked if the pairing wasn't as oil and water as Idonia and Dash. She was his antithesis. While he dealt in the virtual world, she worked in the real one, and that shining gem of personality wasn't doing the slicer any favors. She hadn't even batted an eye his way or displayed anything (aside from those curves) that was decidedly feminine. In short, she was hard to work with - and that was mostly to do with the fact that she was making Dash work for her now. He was however catching on to her master plan as the transceiver from the astromech would couple together nicely with the sat array, and create a strengthened beacon on which to receive and send the signal. Apparently she needed to do this though, despite not exactly knowing what it was for, he watched her work like he did to some respect. She was driven and focused, but lacked that personality that laced every syllable and phrase that came out of the slicer's mouth. Even when he was frustrated, his colorful speech was a normally infectious blend of sardonic and carefree.

"Right...Corellia, and you'd trade out the core for a back-birth braze filled dump? I'm a fan of tech that works, not one that complains about every segment of code because the internal dampener realized that the atmosphere of a sandbox like Tatooine isn't going to turn off its dual suns anytime soon." A roll of his his teal eyes offered up to the engineer in green. This job was frustrating enough for the young Hapan, and while he was glad that he had some help on the assignment, it wasn't exactly the reason her company was appreciated at the first. As much as the view had improved though, he wasn't going to be oogling her entirely, and had to become a bit more active than what even she was demanding. "Cool the hyperdrive uh...you know without your name I'm gonna have to come up with something flattering and possibly offensive. So you can do what you will with that gamble, sunshine." Instead of just simply going off of her instructions, he grabbed a few hand tools and dropped to the ground pushing himself under the satellite dish directly next to her. A wire cutter handed off to her absently, while his chosen tool was the handy hydrospanner he was using to get into the signal feed that emptied out of the main shaft.

"You've got this bosslady thing down to a science." Dash admitted with a grin while he began to pipe into the stream and check the signal level. His tech vambrace glowed with a healthy blue hue, showing him readouts for the signal to noise ratio. He was trying to compensate the feed from the arid atmosphere, and all the sand and dust in the air that was clogging up his chances for a clear data stream. They wanted a network setup here and if his reception was as spotty as the feed they got down in the bar itself, it'd never work. "Whaddya know, you actually managed to push out about ten more decibels per cycle. You're alright Jade-y, I think I'll keep you." Apparently he was trying out different nicknames until one would stick. The holo emitter on his arm brought up a digital feed and holoscreen in air for him to work through. Lines of code were being entered in short order, capitalizing on the range she was able to produce. Digits tapped on air, directing the data into the secured funnel, linking to an encrypted S-thread that he'd setup for just such an occasion. The junction box wasn't a problem, as it was off-world. The issue was trying to get the signal to bounce off the dish here on this poor excuse for a viable relay station.

"Out of all the dive bars, in all the sand traps in all the Galaxy, you just had to start swilling on this scrap of nowhere." The slicer postulated as he killed the feed and shifted his form right onto his side, one arm propping up his head, the other laying lazy over his abdomen while teal eyes fixed on her horizontal frame. "You were just drawn to me, right? Or did you actually have a more profound reason for this dust bowl and happened to get a slicer as a bonus?" He could really lay it on thick, and heavy sometimes. The kind of thick that could get him hit if he wasn't careful - but he was having a hard time playing it safe because....just look at her!

[member="Idonia Devreaux"]