The Wheel Keeps Turning... And it has Drinks

[Durotar]

Kaggak, or rather Durotar as he had renamed himself since he had left the Imperial Red Guard, laid back in his chair. This nondescript bar, in this nondescript hallway, in what should have been the most famous space station in existence, was a happy enough refuge for the nine foot tall Vong warrior. His long-bladed scimitar was comfortably propped up beside him, in only half of his Red Guard-issue power armor. He'd begun the process of painting it jet-black to match the phrik of his sword, but red still showed through, as if the metal was bleeding.

The former Guard sat, lonely and sad, with a mug that sat in his huge hands like a flute filled to the brim with a mix of Corellian whiskey and some kind of sweet alcohol he couldn't place. Whatever it was, it was getting him drunk enough to get maudlin and pensive, like drinking usually made him. Some small part of him wished for a friend, or maybe a pretty girl, to pull him out of this state of total depression.

But who could?

 

[Rena Kryze]

[member="Durotar"]

The Wheel. Nestled away in the deepest corner of Mandalorian space, it was your standard hive of scum and villainy. Being Mandalorian space, it was also a great place to set up shop and sell the awesome new products of the MandalTech lines being pumped out at record pace. Being one of the Mando'ade's best quartermasters had its perks. Connections, supply lines, these were all in the purview of Rena Kryze. Her job was to advance the company, to make it more prestigious, through both sales, corporate takeovers and new technological developments. For an Initiate, she was doing a damn good job.

So now she was here on the Wheel. Her work was done and now she had decided that a drink was probably a good idea-- then she spotted that... was that a Vong?

Okay, now she was curious.

The Mandalorian girl ordered a big glass of ale, picked it up, and then sat down next to the gigantic Vong.

"Troubled, vod?" she asked, genuinely curious. She was a girl. A pretty one, we will never know, because Rena didn't take off her helmet. Even to drink her ale through a straw.

 

[Catherine Romanov]

A cantina. Catherine was back in a cantina again. She always seemed to end up in a cantina these days. This one was called the Wheel, or so she thought. This time though, she elected to do something different. Instead of choosing an alcoholic beverage, she went for a more subdued choice, Vitajuice.

On this occasion, Catherine was not clad in her beskar'gam. It was stored back in one of the lockers in her ship. Wearing her black skin-tight pilot suit, all she had was her blaster and SMG with her. She had left her more bulky weapon, her rifle back in the ship as well. This being in Mandalorian space, Cathy figured she would be safe enough here or so she hoped.

Casually stirring her drink, she noticed a Vong sitting in a corner, with a recognisable figure that she remembered. Now this was interesting, she had heard of the Vong, but never seen one up close before. Grabbing her drink, she sauntered over to a seat next to him, plonking herself down onto the chair. With an action like that, they had to notice her.

[member="Durotar"] [member="Rena Kryze"]

 

[Durotar]

Now this was a little bit confusing for Kaggak, who'd been drinking by himself, not thirty seconds ago. First, a woman in shiny red armor came over, and now this cute little blonde. The massive Vong shrugged at the first woman, and was completely bewildered by the behavior of the second. He sighed, and his hair shook along with his head. Looking at the armored woman, he took a surprisingly careful sip of his drink.

"Well, if I told you, then I'd probably get shot. I don't like getting shot, so I won't tell you."

His attention turned to the blonde, and he smirked, dislodging the two ornamental tusks he'd tried to set into his jaw to disguise his face. Good riddance, he thought.

"And you're here to stare, I guess?"

[member="Rena Kryze"] [member="Catherine Romanov"]

 

[Rena Kryze]

"I severely doubt you'd get shot in here other than-"

Rena glanced up to see Cathy sit down! Unlike their last meeting, she wasn't running on four days without real sleep, so she wasn't entirely delusional. Attract one Mandalorian femme fatale, you'd attract another eventually. They tended to travel in pairs, like all women did. Entirely accidentally, more often than not, which just made it even more hilarious.

"Hi, Cathy," Rena said. Her delivery was still being worked on but it wasn't work time right now so no point thinking about that. Instead, she just drank her ale through her helmet draw and stared at the green man.

"Anyway. I'm Rena. This is Cathy. And if anyone tried to shoot you in here, vod, I'm pretty sure we'd take them out for you. What's the problem?"

[member="Durotar"] | [member="Catherine Romanov"]

 

[Durotar]

At the red armored woman's assurance of their help, Kaggak rolled his eyes, and gestured to the huge sword he'd propped against the table. With another gulp of his drink, he smiled, and his sharp teeth showed. There wasn't really anything they could help him with, except by talking, and that would most likely get him shot at.

"Well, Rena, right? I was at Teta. And sure as hell not on the Mandalorian side. My liege was the best, and that old bastard Ordo displaced her. And then he had to go and get himself shot in the back, and now Junra's dead, too. My lady died protecting her, or something like that. What the hell am I supposed to do, except sit around and drink my money away?"

With that little explanation, he emptied his mug, and a serving droid came around to fill it back up. What the hell was he gonna do, join the Mandalorians? Half of them would be screaming for his death, and the other half would be walking on eggshells, not wanting to tell him anything. The Omega Pyre wasn't an option, at all. Their Lady Protector was Vongformed, and they'd probably torture him for information. The idea of joining the Republic made him want to gag. So what was he going to do with his life?

[member="Rena Kryze"] [member="Catherine Romanov"]

 

[Catherine Romanov]

Catherine took a sip of her drink with one hand, while using the other to give Rena a curt wave. "Heya. Fancy meeting you here. You don't seem half-dead this time, that's good."
Turning her gaze over to to the Vong, she stared for a good minute or two before exclaiming "What she said. ...So you're a Vong? In the flesh! Now that's cool!" before beaming him a smile that most people seemed to love.

"Talking about history are we?..I wouldn't be so worried if I were you." With a wink of eye, she continued "Unless you are planning to be a spy, then you should be worried, we don't treat spies nicely at all. No we don't."

Setting her empty glass on the table, she went on "If you're sincere about leaving the past behind, and starting a new life, I'm sure the others will accept you in due time. If you make the effort, it will happen eventually." Breathing out a sigh, "I wasn't born a Mandalorian as well, I joined them many years ago, but I have since left my old life behind me."

[member="Durotar"] [member="Rena Kryze"]

 

[Rena Kryze]

A helmeted grin. "Yeah, well, when I'm not working, it's nice to have some downtime. Besides, things get busy in the office."

Interesting. Interesting indeed. So the boss had done some awesome things on Empress Teta - and this was yet another being that thought that the boss was dead. Fortunately, wearing a helmet meant that she had no need to hide her surprise on her face. Rena knew the boss was good - by extension of existence, any Mandalorian Field Marshal was good. But this was a new level. A Yuuzhan Vong had just praised his skills, and they were in many senses the enemy.

Did Rena Kryze give a flyin' kriff who the 'enemy' was? No. She wasn't a warfighter. She sat on her ship and handed out guns so people could go fight said wars. And she loved her job.

"I'm with Cathy here. If you want to start a new life, well, we're usually a good lot for it. I mean, I was born and bred Mando'ade. It's a family thing. But that's what we are - find your family and be one with them. Do you know much about the people?"

[member="Durotar"] | [member="Catherine Romanov"]

 

[Durotar]

Kaggak smiled back at the blonde woman... Cathy. He was mildly surprised that neither of these women even acted vaguely angry or surprised at the idea of the huge Vong becoming a Mandalorian. But he laughed loudly at the idea of becoming a spy.

"I'd be some kind of spy, all right. I couldn't hide myself if you strapped a stygium cloaker to my back."

But at the actual thought of forgetting his past, and joining the Mando'a, he sighed.

"The one little hitch with that plan being that I killed fifty or so of your commandos on Teta not even a year ago. Your new Mandalore would probably rather have my head than my sword, at any rate. He watched his forces get smashed against the other Vong commanders."

The Vong's eyes glinted with his old battle-frenzy as he rapped his knuckles on the pommel of his scimitar.

"And he's more than welcome to try and remove it. But I'm not about to go and hand myself over to kill at his leisure. Also, any Sith he captured would recognize me. Red Guards ain't exactly sheltered in battle."

He looked back at the armored woman, and grinned as he counted off his knowledge of the Mandalorian Code. It was actually pretty similar to the code his adopted parents had taught him.

"Well, I know armor is important. Sharp objects and things that go boom. You're never supposed to be without 'em, or something like that. Supposed to teach your kids to play with said sharp objects and boomy things. And you swear yourself to the call of Mandalore. That's all, ain't it?"

[member="Catherine Romanov"] [member="Rena Kryze"]

 

[Ironwolf]

He hated this place. The Wheel. So proud in all it's riches. Every time he walked these hallways he felt the urge to run amok surge up. Oh how he would clean house. Alas, oaths had been made. Besides, this place was far too well protected. Even for him.

Ironwolf turned a right down another corridor. One of many he identical corridors. And found who he was looking for.

"Aurok Hrest, you are a hard man to find."

The Rodian eyed him slantily.

"Ethu ta wooo na thata."

Ironwolf grinned.

"Let's head inside and talk this over."

The Rodian said nothing and walked into the open doorway he was standing next to. A bar, one watering hole amongst many.

 

[Rena Kryze]

Rena gave it some thought. It wasn't much thought, but... at this point it was an idea. To the Vong's credit, he knew the resol'nare pretty well, if not a little rough for being, you know, not entirely properly educated on it. She didn't mind - but then again she was also a very chill sort of person.

"You could present yourself before Mand'alor. With his blessing, or that of one of the clan heads, you may be able to become one of the people. That said, you'll also need to learn the rest of the resol'nare, which..."

Like a child reciting it for the first time, Rena held up her fingers and counted it off.

"Wear your armour with pride. Honour and seek to further your Clan. Speak the language of our people. Be able to defend yourself and your loved ones. Teach your children the ways of the mando'ade. And, of course, follow the will of Mand'alor. These are our six actions - our resol'nare, our daily way of life. If you could do that, then perhaps you stand a chance. But you'd need to prove yourself. Somehow."

Little did Rena know that there was a fellow beer baron someone very dangerous walking into the room, at that moment...

[member="Durotar"] | [member="Catherine Romanov"] | [member="Ironwolf"]