They told me you could help (Vaudin)

[Arage Bao]

Outside the Senate Building​

The Order didn’t have a clue what to do with me. They had told me I was an anomaly, sorta, that they mostly didn’t allow Padawans over a certain age to be inducted. Something about being set in your ways and all that, I can get behind that, most of the things they are trying to teach me is either logical or deeply flawed - sometimes both at the same time.

Sure, I get that I am probably just so deeply rooted in my own believes that everything they say sounds completely bonkers, but I can’t really do anything about that now. Just gotta deal. Today one of the instructors decided to sent me off on an errand, there was a Senator [member="Vaudin Miir"]. Apparently he had been friends with a guy called Jurus, or maybe it was Jeres. Anyway, the guy would be able to help me, somehow.

No clue what it all means, but I am just a padawan. I go where they tell me to and in return I get food, clean water and fresh garbs. Can’t get any better than that if ya ask me. Okay, they could stop with the constant preaching, but that’s about it.

I finally arrived at the big doors of the Senate Building and leaned against one of the walls, this would probably take a while. Probably in session or something.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin sat leaned back in his chair with his feet up on the desk as someone on the desk mounted comlink droned on about the repercussions of commandeering a defense fleet for personal use. He should have reported the fleet he had engaged but really nothing was really lost that anyone knew of anyway.

"You endanger lives and property senator." The voice said.

"They were into it." Came Vaudin’s reply as he sipped a tumbler of Dressellian Scotch.

"We expect you to..."

Chrrrrrrr Hello crrrrrr are you crrrrrrrr I can't chrrrrrrr" Vaudin said before he hung up and shot down the rest of his glass and poured another.

Beep!

"Senator Miir, your 0900 is here."

"Kark me." He said standing and walking to his window, "send him in."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

He was guided into the room by a distinct busty assistant and the only thing Khal could think was something along the lines of “Okay this guy has it made.” even though he hadn’t even talked to Vaudin the thief already considered him more of a kindred-soul than any of the other people he met in the Order.

The Grandmaster herself had taken an interest in Khal’s education, mostly because he had saved the life of one our Knights probably. When they heard he couldn’t even read that had brought a few raised eyebrows, mixed with the fact that he just ain’t the material for most of the Masters Grayson finally decided to sent him to Vaudin.

She told him he’d probably be more of what he needed as a Master, and who was Khaleel to argue that?

‘Senator Vaudin?’ he began, just a bit concerned on the entire situation. ‘I am Khaleel Malvern, a Padawan of the Order. Master Grayson sent me and told me to give you her regards.’

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin winked at the busty assistant as she led the young man in and smiled as she gave the boy a once over before closing the door.

"Kiskla 'Hot pants' Grayson?" Vaudin said turning and taking a sip from his glass. It figured. He owed her a few favors and this was probably only the first, "that woman could grand master me any day."

Vaudin walked from his window to his desk and refilled his glass...again and looked at the scruffy human kid.

"You want a drink?" He asked taking out another glass, "Dressellian Scotch, 12 years old?"

Vaudin poured a glass anyway and sat down.

"So what can I do for the Jedi Order today?"

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

He accepted the drink, one learns to wash away most alcoholic substances when living on Nar Shaddaa. Most of days it’s the only thing that keeps a man going when he is on the down-low of things, the remark about the Grandmaster brought a hesitating grin on Khal’s lips. She was a beauty, that much was for sure.

‘They tell me I am a problem.’ the thief began. ‘I am not what you’d call a firm believer or an orthodox student. Master Grayson wishes for you to… train me?’ it was still a bit difficult to believe that this man was a Force User, he wasn’t actually even sure if that was legal in the strictest sense of the word.

Not that that would really matter to a man like him. Just curious.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin stopped in mid swig and swallowed slowly. Train a Jedi Padawan? Vaudin Miir, molding a young mind? Someone was smoking spice rocks at the temple.

"What the hell did you do to get them to send you to me?" Vaudin said genuinely hoping it was a funny story at least. Truth was Vaudin was clairvoyant. His whole race were in one way or another. Vaudin drank to keep unwanted visions from popping in and because he didn't really care.

"Listen sport, the best I can do is teach you to shoot straighter fly blind and punch things real hard. If you want that robe wearing camp circle hugging stuff they sent you to the wrong guy. I can teach tactics, command, infiltration but that ain't force related."

Vaudin closed his eyes took another drink and thought about Bodo Baas' holocron and the things it told him. Maybe this was the time to follow the old Krevaaki's advice.

"Tell you what. If you want to learn what I know, fine, but I'm not orthodox by a long shot, savvy? "

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

‘Master Miir.’ the thief replied, using the coin name Master as a way to relate his commitment to this road. ‘I think we will get along famously, I ain’t a big fan of all that magicka force mambo-jambo. Never was much for mindless dogma either, I think… this will be fun.’

And to illustrate it Khaleel grabbed the drink and poured it into his mouth, regretting it instantly. The burning sensation that went through his mouth and throat gave him a coughing fit, tears sprung into his eyes.

He waved his hand in an attempt to ward off any help, he’d get through this dang it!

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

"Lesson one," Vaudin said taking a drink, "Dressellian scotch is an aquired taste."

Vaudin turned to the window and looked out at the skylanes. The itch to be back in a cockpit crept up his spine.

"You got a blaster, kid?" Vaudin asked, "you know what it doesn't matter lets go get you ready for a trip."

Vaudin sat down his now empty glass and grabbed his gun belt and a jacket from his wardrobe. He strapped on the twin blasters and checked the charges heading towards the door.

"Come on. We're going shopping."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

No kidding.

Khal put down the glass when he managed to take control over his lungs again. Standing up he began to nod at the question, he did have a bla-- oh hold on. The thief sighed softly and then shook his head.

‘I had a Tenloss Ambassador, beautiful piece. But eh…’ Khaleel shrugged. ‘It wasn’t exactly legally acquired and kept, if you catch my drift. The Order confiscated it when I arrived, only got a training saber. Nothing else.’

Shopping? This was getting better and better, nodding eagerly Khaleel followed Vaudin out of the office.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

"Training saber? What do they want you to do wave the damn thing and hope people just run away?" Vaudin looked actually annoyed, "no you need that piece back and probably another for back up."

Vaudin opened the door and started out passed his secretary.

"Leena, I'm heading to the vault on an internal affairs investigation. Call down and have it cleared, please, and the kid here needs to be added as my...um, intern. Yeah, he's my new intern and I'll probably be late to the artisian massage parlor. Tell them to get an extra room ready for, what was your name?"

"Khaleel." Vaudin stopped and looked at the kid's clothes. Temple duds kind of screamed, "hey, I'm a Jedi shoot at me first.", kind of counter productive. "Kid when we get to the vault check to see if they have some armor or a suit or something."

Vaudin turned and walked into the turbo lift.

"Come on stud. Or we'll be late for the massages this afternoon."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

And just like that everything had changed, suddenly Khaleel figured it wasn’t all that bad to be a… well, not a Jedi. But to be here and try to do some good in the Galaxy, but in their own way, away from the dogma and magicka-stuff that made no sense to people like Khaleel. Who had spend his days crawling through the trenches of Shaddaa, you can’t believe in the ‘Will of the Force’ or whatever when you are born there.

Just ain’t possible.

At least not for Khaleel, maybe that made him weak, or perhaps that made him one of the few sane people in this whole joint.

‘Yes, sir!’ Khal answered with a wide grin, following Vaudin out.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin made his way to the vault and walked passed security.

"The kid's with me." He said hitching a thumb at the young man as they walked in. The "vault" was actually a huge storage area for confiscated items and things republic security obtained from various places. Vaudin usually found something good here when he had time to peruse the selection and you couldn't beat the price.

"There is a terminal over there." Vaudin said stopping inside, "you can do searches for what they have from there. Just try and only take things from closed cases or stuff scheduled for destruction. I may be a scoundrel but I won't tamper with the judicial system. It does work when we support it, they're karks, but it works."

Vaudin walked around and left Khaleel to search while he checked to see if any more booze and contraband had been turned in lately.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

Khaleel blinked, looking at Vaudin’s retreating back, trying to get words out of his open mouth but failing miserably. Nobody, nobody could be this… this… cool. Before fate decided to curbstomp his face into the ground and scream ‘surprise’ at him, Khal quickly went over to the terminal to get a vague idea on what was located where.

Soon enough the thief wandered through the vaults, his eyes roaming the place and sizing it up. There was simply so much here, he’d need a repulsor lift to get everything he wanted o-- moderation, Khaleel. Vaudin has been good to ya, and he hadn’t been obliged to.
He restrained himself and looked at the items with some moderation, finally he picked a MT-TX Omni-tool, apparently it had been used to hack into various storefronts and order things for free, also… credit bank hijacking? This thing and him were a match-made in heaven (if he managed to figure out how it worked that is) Putting it in his back, Khal moved on, until his eyes finally spotted his Ambassador.

The K scratched on the side of the barrel gave it away, he took another one with him just to be on the safe-side, before wandering off once again. Khal finally found his way to the armory-section, where he noticed several bulky things, a couple high-tech stealth stuff and other things. All too complicated for him, or perhaps it was the size of the things. Eventually he settled on an iron skin that fitted neatly to his skin and could be worn underneath his clothes.

The revolvers were tugged into the Bodo-Baas gunbelt he found laying around here and then he was ready to go. Until he saw the Playhutt 1st edition with Fabula Cavataio on the front page, Khal grabbed it and shoved it in the bag too.

Can’t ever have too much entertainment.
‘Ready to go, boss.’ he yelled in the general direction of Vaudin’s silhouette.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin grabbed a box of Cigars, a bottle of transdoshan vodka and a few datacards labeled with Vaudin’s name, it paid to know the guy that kept track of inventory. He walked back to Khaleel and nodded.

"Alright, lets get this show on the road." He said simply as he walked to the terminal logged the items, including the Playhutt, as having been redistributed and walked out.

"Listen, kid." Vaudin said, "if you want to use the force and what not. You gotta not over think things and just trust your gut."

He hit the button on the turbolift to head to the Senatorial hanger bay and waited for the lift to come.

"All that meditation stuff works just fine and all, but the force is a tool. If you only know how to use one tool when a problem comes up that the tool don't work on what are you? Screwed. It like that Omni-Tool. That thing can do most anything you want, but say you need to dig a hole. The tool can't save you then right? So, what you need is to learn to use every tool you can."

Vaudin got into the lift and waited as they shot toward the hanger and his beautiful ship. The Swarthy Bantha was an old design from before the battle of Yavin but he had made enough modifications that he held his own with most newer ships oit there. He looked up at the ship as they stepped out of the lift and hooked his thumbs in his gun belt.

"Now that right there is a beautiful sight." He said obviously unaware that it likely looked like an oversized shipping crate to the untrained eye. "You like flying? You can read the manual on the systems if you want while we get our massages."

Vaudin walked toward the ship and lowered the boarding ramp. The kid was alright as far a Vaudin could tell. They were going to have some fun he was certain.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

What Vaudin was saying made a lot of sense, more sense than anything the Jedi had been trying to tell him all this time. All those different names they had for different things, do a Force Push! Oh, why don’t you just pull that over here with your mind.

Hey, Khaleel. Wouldn’t it be grand for you to simply Force Jump over this wall blablablabla. The thing wasn’t that he didn’t want to try it, but everytime they tried to push his mind into this particular mindset of sections, categories; Force Sense and all that other crap? It’s as if his mind just decides to fart and shut down during those moments.

Pretty annoying.

With that being said, this made more sense. Simply trusting your instinct, do instead of think, forget meditation, and just go and kick ass. He nodded in response. ‘I think I get it, boss.’

Finally they arrived at the hangar bay, Khaleel studied the ship for a while. If it had been anyone else they would have started laughing right about now, but this was Khal, he was used to the dirt and grime of Little Coruscant. A ship, any ship, was amazing to him - the fact that Vaudin owned one himself? Was astonishing.

Sure, he knew, deep in his heart, that it didn’t mean all that much for most people. But for him? That ship represented freedom, to go wherever you wanted and nobody could stop you. (Except maybe a planetary shield, if ya didn’t have one of Rave’s gadgets, or a fleet blockade)

‘It looks great, sir.’ he answered truthfully. ‘I… don’t know how to fly though, to be completely honest... I can't even read.’

If he was being honest, be honest all the way. Khaleel braced himself for the snide laughter or outright denial that would soon come.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin nodded proudly at the old TL-1800 but the proud nod died when he registered that the kid said he couldn't fly, reading some how was a secondary concern when the thought of not being able to pilot was involved.

"Kark me kid." He said turning to the boy, "they tell you no "charging a boarding ramp" and don't even teach you to pilot on day one. This is why Jedi have problems. Why don't they just ceremoniously neuter you poor saps and get it over with?"

Vaudin gave the kid a mock hug and assumed an expression of compassion.

"Don't worry, you're safe now." Vaudin said shaking Khaleel needlessly, "They can't hurt you anymore. Except for Grayson...mmm. Alright get on board and grab a bunk, if you find womens close in your quarters just throw them in the laundry chute...things happen. You'll see."

Vaudin opened the ship's hatch and walked up the boarding ramp before it finished extending and began making preparations to take off. The kid was about to learn that flying was a lot like meditation, vaudin was going to make him good enough to do it with his eyes closed.

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

Khaleel patted his new Master awkwardly on the back, he wasn’t much of a hugger, or any other physical touchy-feely stuff. Somehow this felt good though, perhaps because Vaud hadn’t tried to send him away or laugh at him - he had even felt bad for him! Needless to say Khal hadn’t been expecting such a reaction and neither was he used to it, this was only getting better and better. Perhaps life wasn’t all that bad, all the time.

‘Aye aye, captain.’ the Thief wagered, trying to sound at least remotely… navyish.

He followed his mentor onto the ship, before separating in an attempt to find the bunks. Eventually Khal entered the room in question, hmm… no women inside, a pity but you couldn’t get it all in this world. His knapsack with booty was left against the bunk and he wandered off again; trying to find Vaudin in this ship.

It wasn’t big, but when ya have no clue where ya are going? Things get complicated.

After a few detours and dead-ends, he finally managed to find the cock-pit.

‘Reporting for duty, sir.’ with a mock salute to finish it off.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

Vaudin turned in his seat and looked at the kid for a moment and turned forward.

"Sit down Kid we're about to expand your karking horizons...a lot."

Vaudin got them off the landing pad and made the trip out of the gravity well in decent time but lets be honest the bantha was not named the nexu. It was named the bantha. 'Nough said. Vaudin trottled back the engines and hit the controls to give the co-pilots seat control.

"Alright kid take the yoke...that's the little steering thingy, and don't think about what I'll do to you if you wreck my ship." Vaudin said knowing full well he just made the kid think about it, "you know what the force feels like, so trust your gut take your time and fly the ship by feel."

Vaudin took out a flask, leaned way back, and put hit brown booted feet up on the console.

"Oh and use your gauges and instruments. The force don't tell you everything."

 

[Arage Bao]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

Khaleel blinked, did Vaud just say… naaaah, he couldn’t mean that for real right? But when the young thief didn’t make the move to take up the ‘little steering thingy’ and the ship started being pulled downwards he quickly grabbed for the steering thing. Khal looked furiously at all the different panels, trying to make some kind of sense of it all, while also keeping the ship’s nose on the level.

Not an easy task, definitely not an easy task.

‘Eh… Vaudin.’ Khal said very nervously. ‘You sure this is a good idea?!’

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

"No." Vaudin said flatly, "but if you kark up we both die. That's usually a good motivation."

Vaudin sipped from his shiny flask and began humming "swiggity swooty" as he watched Khal start to sweat. He reached above his head and began warming up the hyperdrive.

"You better figure it out if I'm going to get you your own ship kiddo." He said, "trust your gut and don't run into a planet."