Private West of Dodge

[Tansu Treicolt]

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION | WILSTRIL SYSTEM​

Even with the actively receding numbers in the countdown to exit hyperspace, it was hard to believe that this was really happening. Sure, Tansu thought every idea she had was a good one, but to get buy-in from someone other than her sister? That added to the unbelievability.

First, Kyric trusted her enough to work with her on this idea, second, that he'd thought it was a good idea in the first place, fourth, Kyric just happened to have the perfect ship for sneaking up on a freaking-floating-in-space-spacestation! And finally, most importantly, he'd let her pilot their entrance. His trust felt immense.

They broke out hyperspace, and the glistening streamers of light slid away. Tansu immediately checked their screen, reversed polarities, and queried the computer. She was glad to see the tactical display still showed nothing in terms of opposition or detection. And the base shields were down. Maybe for repairs? Relief bled through her, and she whistled low.

"That maskin' program is the real deal." Also something she'd never done before; fly entirely stealthily. Everywhere back home, Jedha, or on Coruscant, was about flashing her talents, showing off. Being seen was a good thing, an hootin-and-hollerin' ordeal. Not today. "They're blind as bats. Don't even know we're here."

She let the light freighter hang suspended in space, not approaching straightaway. The large central view screen was alive with their target. A hulking build of a shipyard floating isolated in space.

"Looks like a bone orchard." She muttered, and moved her fingers across the screen, pinching in to zoom on the visual and rotate it. "Whaddabout here? Looks like low activity? Good entrypoint?"

Tansu buzzed with anticipation. She could feel it in her hands and her throat and right behind her eyes.

"I knowww this is pretty obvious," she started, and kept her eyes trained on the lever that would manage their deceleration once they popped out of hyperspace, "-but I've never done this before. And I super, duper, really, absolutely appreciate you trustin' me like this and you will not regret it I promise." Her hand was up, palm out, solemnly swearing.

This was her first real mission. If it came with some sort of plaque, it was a safe bet she'd mount the memorabilia on the wall when everything was over. She felt invincible, and fully expected to walk away unscathed with the parts for the snub fighters she and her sister were building.

____________________________________________________________
Kyric
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​

 

[Kyric]

"That maskin' program is the real deal." ... "They're blind as bats. Don't even know we're here."

Sitting beside her in the co-pilot's chair, Kyric switched his focus between their ship's sensors and the giant station looming out in space the instant they left hyperspace. BD-8 sat beside him on the terminal. He chirped confirmation their vessel remained undetected every few seconds, a comforting reminder to the kiffar of his father's mechanical genius.

"They'll start jammin' our sensors shortly. Once you pick your point of entry we'll be flyin' blind. Stay calm, you're doing great." He still offered her the same affirmations he had when they were young, urging caution even as she zeroed in on a distant point on the station.

"Looks like a bone orchard." She muttered, and moved her fingers across the screen, pinching in to zoom on the visual and rotate it. "Whaddabout here? Looks like low activity? Good entrypoint?"

"Just under the shadow of the port-side wing. Very good." Kyric commented, his head nodding up and down. "Based on the schematics I swiped from Teta, a solar flash from the next sector over should blind their sensors for three minutes and thirty-eight seconds. We'll have to be docked and out of the ship by then, otherwise, their security mainframe will detect the port access." His demeanor shifted as he briefed her. Gone was the easygoing boy who spent years on the farm beside her and her twin, replaced instead by the spitting image of his father–a confident leader in the face of danger.

"I knowww this is pretty obvious," she started, and kept her eyes trained on the lever that would manage their deceleration once they popped out of hyperspace, "-but I've never done this before. And I super, duper, really, absolutely appreciate you trustin' me like this and you will not regret it I promise." Her hand was up, palm out, solemnly swearing.

Kyric smiled down at her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You've done nothin' but impress me your entire life, Little Dove. You don't have to thank me. You earned this on your own."

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Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Flying blind in a ship she was just getting to know sounded both like a thrill and a threat. It was nearly impossible to stay calm. She was too excited. This kind of mission, crossing into enemy territory, her parents had done a hundred times over. And even Kyric seemed so cool about it. Somber, focused, responsible, but unflinchingly prepared.

One day, she'd exude such confident energy.

"That's notta lotta time" Tansu murmured, mentally charting out the distance and speed. She leaned forward to map out the vector for the trajectory that would take them to port-side.

He put his hand on her shoulder and she felt gratitude balloon in her stomach and stretch up through her, like he'd just given her wings of her own. She swallowed down the fluttery feeling and nodded once. A huge smile peeled across her face. He was looking so earnestly at her that it made her insides puddle. It reinforced how seriously Kyric was taking this. And how serious she should take it too. "Thanks, Ky."


Only because they were under such a time crunch did Tansu turn away from looking happily at him, and then scrunched up her face to focus. Kyric had been sure to give her the rundown before liftoff, and during their time in the hyperspace tunnel. At first, she'd been alarmed that all the weapons and shields were disabled, but once the Stealth Device's power balance was explained, she understood.

"Okay, timer started?" Barely waiting for affirmation, the pilot nosed the ship forward and began the approach. "Across lots we go." Slow at first, steady, testing to ensure no indications pinged up on the display. The readouts remained empty, and with confidence, Tansu accelerated.

Seconds ticked by, and the distance between their starting point and their destination closed meter by meter. Steadily, their freighter drew nearer. The station ahead continued to brighten, its glow coming from within. Gradually, craters and points became visible, all meticulously straight and regularized. Tansu recalled her father commenting on the Imperial's preference for symmetry — an opinion coloured by distaste for TIE fighters.

Running around the station's equator were articial clusters of metal mountains, docking ports that stretched nearly two kilometres, and they all seemed busy. And then, true to Kyric's word, their approach was cast in the dark. Their signals were jammed and she had only her eyes to guide her. Quickly, she looked over to see if Kyric was looking out the viewport. Of course he was.

Tansu adjusted the controls, and the freighter seemed to slow, arcing around in a broad curve to avoid an intersection with any of the employee vehicles going in and out of the docking bays. The approach was slow, delicate, easing through the precious seconds with precise taps to the rudders.

"Preppin' the landin' gear." She announced, and careened the ship to slant its entrance. She held her breath for the next part; the part where they settled on the ship and the first opportunity where everything could go terribly wrong, or just as planned.

Starboard side reduced power, and recalibrated to give more juice to the port stabilizers so the belly of their ship flattened to the shipyard and their exit hatch faced the gaping entrance of the unused port. It seemed the shipyard itself was still under construction, and the empty areas could be used to their advantage. The ship jostled, settled, and Tansu's lungs pounded. After counting to ten, she exhaled heavily.

"Wheewwwww." Leaned back heavily into her seat, and slapped the arms of her chair with her palms. Tension bled out and she felt her muscles loosen. "We're locked on. A little anti-goglin' but seems secure."

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Kyric
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​

 

[Kyric]

While Kyric's skills as a pilot exceeded those of his father before him, by no means would he compare himself to either of the twins. Their parents were legendary pilots in their heyday. Maybe the best. But from where Kyric was sitting, he was starting to think old Loske and Maynard might have some very real competition.

"This'll do just fine," Kyric said. He detached his holodevice from his belt and held it between them. Blue light flickered to life, taking the shape of one segment of the vast station. Three tiny green blips existed within the outline of their ship. Deeper into the facility, past several long corridors guarded by not one, BUT TWO legions of stormtroopers, Tansu would spot hologram replicas of at least a dozen ships tucked into a single hangar. An adjacent room had sported a glowing red blip.

"Looks to me like they're storin' a few different ships in Bay 18. Says here..." More information appeared, beginning to encircle the map with a growing web of information. Kyric's gaze scanned over the first few words of each document as they appeared until he recognized the correct sequence. "Sorry 'bout that. I haven't been able to sort through everything yet. Anywho, this little side room looks like it's storing parts. Doesn't specify for what ships, but I've got a feelin' they'll work better than anything we've found in the scrap lots back on Coruscant."

He stowed the mini-projector and did a final once-over of his belongings. Lightsaber? Check. Heavily modified WESTAR-34? Check. All the other useful spy stuff? Tethered comfortably to his Jedi utility belt or inside his father's jacket.

"Chief, yer with Tansu. Don't let her out of your visual receptors, you little bug-eyed varmint." Kyric scooped his 'Buddy Droid' onto his cousin's shoulder. "He can slice through anythin' you find on this station. I updated his scomp link last night–new slicing processes."

The droid offered a half-hearted complaint at the boy's diction but appeared otherwise happy nestled into the nape of Tansu's neck.

"Don't be afraid to follow BD's lead if we get separated, kid. He may not look like much, but that little droid's got grit. He'll see us through."

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Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Second by second passed, and Tansu couldn't shake the feeling of surrealism that bled into the cockpit. It was hard to reconcile that this was reality, where only a few weeks ago she'd been laying in a wheat field staring up at the very stars she was now parked mysteriously in. This station would have looked like a star from her weeks-ago vantage point. Now, it was a huge shipyard with layers, machines, people, weapons that she'd be sneaking onto with her cousin. And in contrast, she was a tiny little green star on a holodevice. The tables had turned and she felt the warmth of glee trill through her again. It manifested as a lopsided, tight-lipped grin as she leaned in to assess the schematics Kyric presented.

"Sorry 'bout that. I haven't been able to sort through everything yet.

"It's okay!" She inserted quickly, darting to see if Kyric looked bothered at all by his self-prescripted unpreparedness. He seemed unfazed, so Tasu followed in beat. "Okay, so, lemme paraphrase. Cool?

We're getting on the ship, crossing at least three bays. This one is...fifteen right? To an offside storage room, all while trying to avoid some stormtroopers along the way." She leaned back in her seat and took off her cowboy hat. Such an obnoxious shape wouldn't be good for sneaking. While she twisted her hair into a ponytail, she shrugged. "Okay, some troopers is actually a helluva lot."

She mimicked Kyric's double-check. Touching the cool metal of her weapons made her feel a little less airy and untouchable. Like the gravity of using them kept her grounded in this reality. Her cheeks split in a grin,

"I just realized we're both wearing vintage." She pulled at the sleeve of Kyric's jacket, under the Saber Squadron patch. "Or, Talin prefers to call it a war relic. Kinda cool it's like a uniform again. Round two." Their clothes had stories in them, and if Tansu ever felt like her nerves were losing their edge, she touched the fabric and drew from the feelings of confidence, courage, and bravery from her parents. Hers was obscenely oversized. Talin Treicolt had scooped their mom's, and left Tansu with Maynard Treicolt 's. "Cool."

As they prepared, Tansu depressed the landing ramp so they could exit. They'd have to hold their breath for the quick transition from being parked just outside the docking bay, and hoist themselves up over the ledge and into the facility.

"Chief, yer with Tansu. Don't let her out of your visual receptors, you little bug-eyed varmint."

"Hey Chiefy," She welcomed the droid with a little pat on the smooth of his head. When the girls were little and snooping on Kyric and his training, the little droid had always sought them out. She felt called out at the time, but it had become an endearing rhythm. "You feelin' all gussied up with your new udpate? "

"Don't be afraid to follow BD's lead if we get separated, kid. He may not look like much, but that little droid's got grit. He'll see us through."

​

They'd made their way down the ramp by the time Kyric said this, and Tansu stopped just before she activated her grappling hook. Her stomach flip-flopped at the idea of being separated with two legions of stormtroopers. She shared Talin's penchant for a wild thrill, but not the same penchant to heartily shoot her way out of a conundrum.

"If is just you being prepared, right? You're not gonna..go off and do something else...right? I.. haven'tactuallyactivatedthelightsabersinceweleftHome."

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Kyric
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​

 

[Kyric]

"Okay, so, lemme paraphrase. Cool?

We're getting on the ship, crossing at least three bays. This one is...fifteen right? To an offside storage room, all while trying to avoid some stormtroopers along the way." She leaned back in her seat and took off her cowboy hat. Such an obnoxious shape wouldn't be good for sneaking. While she twisted her hair into a ponytail, she shrugged. "Okay, some troopers is actually a helluva lot."

"Bay 18," Kyric corrected. "I'm figurin' the 16,000 should be spread across the station's differin' sectors. Plus, this system's star is on a forty-eight-hour rotation. When you factor all that nonsense in with vacation requests, recruits, sick leave, and any other slew of circumstances that could take a soldier out of action? I'm figurin' there'll only be between five hundred to a thousand immediately in firefightin' shape. The rest will have to gear up and/or cross a greater distance before we even have to worry."

When Tansu's hand made contact with Kyric's sleeve, an image would flash through her mind so quickly it could almost pass for an intrusive thought.

The stench of burning flesh hung heavy around her. A headless body knelt in the sand at her feet, while the oblong lump one might assume to be the head disappeared out of her peripheral.

Then Kyric stood where the corpse did, his eyes focused on a holopad in his hand as he went over a final readthrough of his notes.

"If it was good enough for Saber Squadron, it's definitely good enough for me."

"Hey Chiefy," She welcomed the droid with a little pat on the smooth of his head. When the girls were little and snooping on Kyric and his training, the little droid had always sought them out. She felt called out at the time, but it had become an endearing rhythm. "You feelin' all gussied up with your new udpate? "

The Big Chieftain nuzzled her hand and whirred affectionately. "Yes! I've yet to discover a door I could not overpower. With these new slicing processes, I'll make short work of anything that stands in our way, Tansu. Don't even worry." The droid scurried over to her other shoulder and clamped down on the leather. "We were able to get my stim dispensers up and running, too. Let me know if you need one!"

Kyric stopped at the edge of the ramp, peering down at her as she felt her trepidations. He started to answer her first question. The following inquiry stopped him and her admission earned a laugh simultaneously.

"If is just you being prepared, right? You're not gonna..go off and do something else...right? I.. haven'tactuallyactivatedthelightsabersinceweleftHome."

"I'll do my best to stay right by your side, kid. This is my first time in a facility like this one, too. We've got specs, map data, and a plan, but I'm not bettin' your life on that if I can help it." Kyric fitted his grapple attachment to the head of his WESTAR-34 as he spoke. "Just try to stay focused. The faster we get this taken care of, the faster we can get gone and show your sister all the new goodies."

BD-8 looked over Tansu's head at Kyric. His visual lenses tightened as metal coiled in on itself, and then the droid turned his attention upward.

Kyric lifted his blaster and tightened his finger on the trigger. The tiny grapplehead shot up and over the platform, disappearing out of sight. He yanked back on it until he heard the satisfying ker-chunk as it caught something. "Alrighty, I'll go first." He offered one final nod of encouragement then quickly scaled the wall and disappeared over the side. At the top, he detached the hooked device from a grate and prepared to pass it down if Tansu couldn't get up alone.

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Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Each point of context received a bobbing nod. The minutiae details of a day job reinforced a feeling she hadn't been able to fully wrap her hands around and hold. Amorphous and huge, it was a feeling that kept her from being as trigger-happy as her sister. Talk of vacation, onboarding, illness, gave that feeling of apprehension more shape. Its definition was still loose, but the structure helped make her understanding of it a little clearer. Like a comprehension that in the end, people were doing a job. Infinite complacency for a paycheck. For employees, it was only circumstance that put them in the right place at the wrong time. Intellectually she knew there was a degree of conscious choice each of those careerspersons made. Even those goons on Coruscant had been hired by someone to do something. It was a bad career path, sure, but she'd seen rougher starts on Concord Dawn. And she'd seen finer finishes when there was opportunity. Her ma believed in countless chances.

Tansu's rumination ended the moment she touched Kyric's arm.

Images flashed behind her eyelids in a blink. Smoking flesh, a headless body, the residual momentum of a strike reverberating up her arm. A noise of surprise hopped out of her, and the cockpit's atmosphere turned acrid. She snapped her hand back. Kyric didn't seem to notice, so she didn't say anything yet. Just listened to the Saber Squadron reference and nodded agreeably. "Talin calls it a war relic." She inserted. She missed her sister, even felt a little guilty going off without her.

"Worry who? We don't know her." BD's cheery chirps moved from right to left across her shoulders and she chuckled. He promised to open doors and close wounds. "No offense l'il guy, but I hope I don't." She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial level, sharing a secret with just the droid. "I'm hopped up on adrenaline, don't need much other rocket fuel."

Crouched on the ramp's slant, Tansu watched Kyric ascend.

"And I'll go second. Pull up the rear, no fear." No danger signal came, and she fired off her own line. Once it clunk'd and hooked, she tested it with a tug, and trusted it with her weight. Leaping, rushed steps barely-striking the outside of the station supported her upward fall. At the top, she clambered over, clawing at metal to hoist herself fully over the edge. An undignified groan slipped out at the effort of it.

"I imagined that bein' a lot more graceful." She muttered, mostly to herself, while the hook recoiled to its storage.

Their point of entry gave them temporary cover in the loading bay. Boxes and storage containers lined the left side of the bay, with enough distance between them and the wall that Tansu and Kyric could use it to get them from their current position to the main blaster door. There was only one gap in the middle that spanned about six feet without cover.

Crouched behind a bulk of loading crates, Tansu peeked around the edge of one low to the ground, and was delighted to see how spartan the bay was.

Not only was it under construction and not in use, but the timing made for few bodies doing their security rounds. Kyric's data included shift rotations and their associated charts to summarize the most staffed and least staffed times. The station was sleepless, but not infatigable. Lunch happened to be one of the most consistently under resourced hours. And it was the top of lunch hour.

Emptiness made the hangar bay feel bigger. Like a giant metal cathedral with a wide ceiling, and beams that intersected at points to keep it elevated. The hallway stretched on horizonless. The only things to truncate its eternal length were intermittent blaster doors.

It was also very loud. A clangorous din of hammering, whirring, beeping, all sounds of machines busily fusing, welding and creating parts. Echoes ricocheted from wall to wall, cacophonous and amplified by the space.

"I count one, two, loiterers." Tansu whispered. BD confirmed with a low beep, matching the farm girl's hushed tone. One shape exited the main hangar and didn't look back. Probably off to lunch. "One left."

They were wearing the coveralls of a mechanic. They weren't a guard. Just a hired hand to help build ships. Probably graduated from engineering school a few years ago, he didn't look much older than Kyric.

"Hey, do you think we'd get further if we just… walked right in? Insteada sneaking around?" Her chin pointed toward the mechanic, who was now covering their face with a welder's mask and crouching next to one of the mechanical arms up on a gang ramp. Their coveralls looked easily wearable. Big enough to pull over their clothes.

Well, maybe not the leather jackets.

Bright eyes widened at the idea, seeking Kyric's opinion. She reholstered her blaster and adjusted the empty pack on her back, making sure the straps were secure before darting off. Two hands swept across her face, flattening loose hairs back into her ponytail.

"Now'sa'time as any, either sneakin' or walkin."

At the end of the line of crates there'd be a large grate they could crawl through that connected to the next bay. Or they could risk going through the door and into the hallway.

"Go?"

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Kyric
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​

 

[Kyric]

Steady footfalls kept Kyric a few paces behind Tansu. He peaked his head out from behind their cover to scope out the space, though his cousin made great use of her position at point and listed off anything of interest succinctly.

"Hey, do you think we'd get further if we just… walked right in? Insteada sneaking around?"

"It's not a bad idea," Kyric stated slowly as if still considering the plan. "I'm always hesitant to leave somethin' like this up to chance. There's a supremely low chance anyone here recognizes us, but it can happen. I'd prefer not to place us in anyone's path if I can." He looked past her to the lone stormtrooper loitering near the door. The soldier didn't appear to be in any rush to return to their shift, so the kiffar took his time to determine the best path to the grate.

"Let's stay off the beaten path for now." Kyric inched up the edge of cover and placed his hand on the crate. He waited patiently. Several seconds passed in painstaking silence while the trooper kicked at an item too small for Kyric to discern. When the little item flew too far to retrieve, they left. "Well, that was lucky." He signaled her after him and hurried over to the grate.

It wasn't any different than what either of them were familiar with, so Kyric detached a handheld electro-driver from his belt. He pressed the tool against a singular screw in one corner and clicked the activation trigger. It whirred softly and unscrewed the tiny piece of durasteel in seconds. Kyric repeated the process with the other three while Tansu kept watch, careful to hold it aloft and slowly detach it as the final screw popped out. Moving it to the side, he crawled in.

"Alrighty, following our map-" which materialized out of the droid before Tansu while he spoke. It was updated live, tracking their movements through the maintenance tunnel. "- we'll want to follow this little duct for fifty meters, then make a right." He did as instructed, slowly crawling through the space, one arm over the other, until they reached the intersection. "Not much further, kid. How ye holding up?" The question came as he rounded the corner and began the final stretch.

Halfway down what would be a dead end, Kyric crawled over a three-by-three hatch, paused, and awkwardly shifted back to face the direction he came. "This leads to a droid maintenance facility. Nothin' fancy." Using the same tool from earlier, the Jedi detached the hatch and dropped into the dark room.

BD-8 nestled closer to Tansu and activated the flashlights built into its optical receptors. It didn't do much to illuminate the room, but the two cousins could discern several deactivated droids mounted to maintenance ports.

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Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Right as rain!" Tansu chirped, crawling behind him at an even pace. Crawling, she was used to. But it was usually through muck or some such unpleasantry to get a chore done. It was through fields or wooden structures — not narrow, cold, dark, steel.

She was trying not to be noisy about it. Especially with the way the backpack kept moving around her body and threatening to skim the metal the crawled through.

"Kinda creepy." Tansu admitted when BD's lights illuminated the lifeless metal silhouettes. She peered from the crate. "Like at any moment they could all just come tuh life. Ick." A shudder roiled through her and she suppressed it with momentum, sliding to the edge of the crate and dropping down. The pack slid awkwardly around her shoulders.

Not a single droid stirred.

"Okay, from this map, we're just a hop skip and a jump from the primary parts storage. Yeah?" She held out a hand to count on her fingers. "All we need are some scramblers, Chieftain can pull some of the codes from a terminal so we know what we're workin' with and are up tuh date. Weapon upgrades if we got them and if they'll.. fit. And some plating. If they have rubicon navicomputers I'm not gonna promise I won't squeal because that could show us all their trajectory and — oop, sorry." She cut herself off when she realized her voice was getting to the inappropriate-for-sneaking-around decibel.

Her awareness spread out, senses searching, stretching, seeking to see the unseen the next rooms over. She couldn't feel anything lifelike. No focused energy, no anxious focus. Nothing. Just vacant space that felt as void as the lifeless room they stood in now.

"Okay let's go." She moved from the centre of the room to the doorway, pressed the panel to open, and saw nothing in the hallway. She made a tiny noise of excitement and slipped into the beckoning hall.

It was one, two, three — BD chirped out correction— no, two, doors from the limp droid room to the side room Kyric's map marked. Tansu back pedaled, and poised outside the door. She looked once to Kyric for approval, and pressed her hand to the steel. Searching, seeking, and not finding again. She nodded, pressed open the door, stepped inside, and drew in a sharp awed breath.

"Wow." Came out as a low whistle. "Wow wow wow. Lookit all this!"

She abandoned all caution and wasted no time darting inside to investigate the cathedral of spoils further.

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Kyric
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​

 

[Kyric]

"Kinda creepy." Tansu admitted when BD's lights illuminated the lifeless metal silhouettes. She peered from the crate. "Like at any moment they could all just come tuh life. Ick."

"Yup," Kyric nodded sagely, grimacing while he surveyed the inactive droids. Not one of them would provide them with anything useful. "I was hopin' we'd find a protocol or security droid." He sighed and circled back over to Tansu. "Unlucky."

"Okay, from this map, we're just a hop skip and a jump from the primary parts storage. Yeah?" She held out a hand to count on her fingers. "All we need are some scramblers, Chieftain can pull some of the codes from a terminal so we know what we're workin' with and are up tuh date. Weapon upgrades if we got them and if they'll.. fit. And some plating. If they have rubicon navicomputers I'm not gonna promise I won't squeal because that could show us all their trajectory and — oop, sorry." She cut herself off when she realized her voice was getting to the inappropriate-for-sneaking-around decibel.

Once Tansu started rolling, Kyric settled back and listened. She recounted everything perfectly. Their location, goal, and even a fair few extracurriculars in the event fortune turn in their favor. Pride swelled in his chest when her senses expanded beyond the mundane, but he maintained an even expression. The Force was a tricky ally. One honored through temperance. Were his cousin to give in to arrogance, or impatience, she very well could doom the mission by alerting a nearby force sensitive to their presence.

And that wouldn't be good for anyone.

The entire trip was meant to be a performance review, for lack of better wording. Kyric needed to know the twins could handle themselves should the enemy get to him. Others would have to carry the torch in his absence, and it was within Tansu that the Wayseeker saw the brightest flame. She lacked her sister's overzealous tendency to shoot first and ask questions later while still showing courage in the face of opportunity.

"Okay let's go."

"Lead on, kid." Kyric paused beside the doorway, then gave chase through the hall. He expanded his suppression field over Tansu and the Chieftain, quieting both their passage and dialogue. They darted from door to door, only course-correcting once, before Tansu activated the terminal and led the trio inside. He ensured the door closed behind them while Tansu threw herself at the room full of goodies she so desperately desired. Rather than scold her, he chuckled and made his way to a terminal in the corner.

"I'm nowhere near as familiar with ships as you, so do what you've got to do. I'll see if I can scrub this for anything useful." Kyric withdrew a slicewire from his belt and began to cut through the duranium plating beneath the terminal. "BD, get ready to jack into this box. I don't know how long we'll have in the event someone's lookin' for this sorta thing."

The Big Chieftain nodded excitedly and hovered between both Kyric and Tansu.

"You seein' anything particularly useful, Tansu?"

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Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

To the untrained eye, the storage room was just a menagerie of relatively organized junk. Bits and bobs, pieces and thingamajiggies — largely useless until it was all summed up by some mechanic and manufactured directly into the final output. But for a Treicolt, this room was a treasure trove.

Kyric and her surroundings fell away, overtaken by the euphoric

"Lookit this! Look at all this!" She whispered at first, hands over her mouth while walking through the bins and racks. Then she started darting around, rifling a bunch and enthusiastically bubbling out an inventory of recognition.

"An NH-7 avionics package! A — NO WAY!— A Power Surge Loop? TIE exclusive, oh that is so cool, I never thought I'd see one of these up close. Y'know they made these for those stupid ships because they're basically all energy and ions? This thing," she waved it around "Is the only thing keeping it from building up and blowing prematurely and oo—lookeee 'ere! A Particle Motivator, of course! Okay, even cooler. And oh! Oh! An LpL-navigator — that's like Damien's ship. His Interceptor. But.." She turned it over, scrutinizing, "I think his might be better, so, plus one score for the good guys." There was no marination in that imaginary victory won by the unaware Damien Dooku , she was quickly rummaging through another bin, squatting, turning things over.

"An XCiter — man, there are so many TIE parts here. I guess that makes sense y'know, given it's the evil empire and everything." She wasn't an engineer, she had no idea how these things worked with a larger scientific appreciation, but the parts themselves were catalogued and appreciated for the damage they could doll out.

"Oh, crazy, I didn't think they still produced these? A BAFFLE!" She held one up if Kyric or BD were interested in seeing. "Engine modification, makes energy look like garbage while we're whizzin' around in space."

"You seein' anything particularly useful, Tansu?"

​

Oh right, right, she had a job to do other than pure ogling and overzealous fact regurgitation. She didn't answer right away, just made a sing-song noise and darted further into the cavernous space.

"Telesponders! With up-to-date codes!" She announced after a few noisy intervals passed of rummaging and digging and leaning almost-too-far into oversized bins. She dropped down from the lip of the bin to her feet, then to her knees and shovelled three into her pack.

Her next update was equally cheery: "Thermal dissipators! Sensor dampeners! Oh, we got some —" her voice dipped to a conspiratorial decibel. "An external control coupling. This.." She poked the tiny metal box with a spray of loose wires come out from either end "— this might could be very helpful or very dangerous. I'm takin' it."

With a hop she has back on her feet, darting back around and humming to herself about being a scrambler, where would she be? Where would she be?

Her tracks stopped dead and she stared at unit, about knee height, that would not fit in her bag. Nor would they be able to discretely drag it through the ducts. Tansu, with reckless abandon, raised her voice backward to BD. She'd put some distance between herself and her cousin simply by wandering through the storage room.

"How! BD! Y'think y'd be able to interface with this?" She dropped to her knees to investigate the description. "N-E-E-D-L-E Remote…REMOTE SLICER! That is so —"

"Hey!"

Tansu stopped dead, eyes wide, and shoved her very non-discreet bag behind the cover of the NEEDLE unit.

"Raise your hands over your head."

Oop. She'd been so wrapped up in her excitement that she'd forgotten to stay tapped into her senses. Did this room have two entrances? A flood of despair and panic burgeoned within. She lifted her arms and peeked over her shoulder at the guard. He was relatively big, craggy-faced, with the ugly end of a blaster pointed at her head.

"Stand up."

The impulse to step back and run to Kyric was powerful, but she stood her ground. So far it was one guard, and her.

"Howdy pardner," she felt a grin ooze across her face, feigning any amount of charm or ruse her Pa might have evidenced in the day before delivering a sucker punch. "I'm just here doin' a routine check-up of your organization. No need to get all riled up." She hoped to the stars that this guard was either totally obtuse, or didn't recognize the faded Sabre Squadron patch on her jacket. It was hardly an appropriate outfit for anyone working within the Empire. So, she explained that. "Third party contractin', specialist. You didn't get the comm about it? Happening for the next hour. Gonna assume you wanna see some eye-dee?"

"Who were you yelling to. You're not alone."

Tansu blinked.

"The eye-dee, y'aint wanna see it? Please? I promise the picture's real purdy. Just got it. Real proud to show 'er off."

____________________________________________________________
Kyric
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Kyric]

[ Excited teenaged girl ship jargon here. ]

Tiny stars raced in and out of Kyric's vision as Tansu's technical talk on starfighter parts far outpaced his knowledge. He focused on what he could, storing away the information side-by-side with whatever played out before him. It was a simple trick. Applying multiple senses to a memory, one his father taught him young when they discovered Kyric's eidetic memory. Her rambling eventually overloaded that. The sudden break of the final duranium hinge freed him from the spell.

"C'mere, BD." Kyric guided the tiny droid inside. "Focus on shutting down any outward response, first. We need to stay incognito." The droid chirped a quick affirmation and set to work. The faint zap of little electrical surges echoed from within.

"Telesponders! With up-to-date codes!" Her next update was equally cheery: "Thermal dissipators! Sensor dampeners! Oh, we got some —" her voice dipped to a conspiratorial decibel. "An external control coupling. This.." She poked the tiny metal box with a spray of loose wires come out from either end "— this might could be very helpful or very dangerous. I'm takin' it."

"Hear that, little guy? Those codes are gonna make the rest of this a cinch." He papped one of the droid's clamps, mimicking a high-five, and climbed to his feet to investigate her findings. Unsure of what to prioritize, Kyric only took a few parts. A spare dampener and control coupling specifically, and continued to follow after Tansu. They intended only to place the most valuable parts in his pack early on, or if she ran out of space in hers. Simple and clean.

BD-8 momentarily distracted Kyric when the droid reported success in breaking through the system security undetected. He turned back and watched the terminal activate at the droid's command. Files began to be copied and stored away immediately, but he knew it would take the droid several minutes before accessing anything noteworthy. The easily available data always served to deter the good and righteous efforts of one Cowboy-Samurai, it seemed.

"Hey!"

"Raise your hands over your head."

"Stand up."

Kyric crouched quietly and motioned for the Big Chieftain to remain silent. He kept a hand near the ground to steady himself if needs must, then quickly darted from one point of cover to the next. Darkness made it difficult to determine if others lingered elsewhere in the room, so the boy went with his gut and assumed this was an accident. Tansu's pitch fluctuated greatly through her search. By no means was it impossible for a passing officer to have heard her.

Tansu's ploy kept the guard's attention on her long enough for Kyric to round an L-shaped bend and slip behind the guard interrogating her. The kiffar pressed his shoulder to the wall and checked the way the guard came. No one else stood out in the hallway, but it did end in a T-intersection. He couldn't be sure what waited on either end. Rather than test his luck further, he moved behind the guard and began to smother him.

The guard's strength should have permitted him an easy escape from Kyric's smaller frame. The boy's point of leverage, and force-enhanced strength, made it impossible. So he held the guard there until the guard stopped struggling.

Meeting Tansu's gaze, Kyric motioned for her to lower her tone a twinge, but he kept his typical smile. This was still supremely manageable.

"Don't stress it, kid. We've got eyes on both exits now," Kyric hadn't expected anything to come of Tansu's teensy mistake, but it was a lesson learned–for both of them. "Chief is focusin' on copyin' whatever he can from the terminal by the door. I've got a couple of things, but nothin' jumped out at me yet. You think I should grab anything else before we get gone?"

____________________________________________________________

Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

Just when it was becoming dismayingly clear how unconvinced the guard remained of a genuine portrait, Kyric appeared. Tansu flinched at the sudden arrival, but not enough for the guard to have any warning or time to prepare for a sneak attack from behind. She made a small pip sound of surprise, and, wide-eyed and rigid, watched up until the guard became so limp that they dropped the weapon that had been trained on her.

She lunged forward and intercepted it right before it clanged to the ground. How loud would that have been if it had gone off? If he'd shot her? Dax had shot (at) her on Castell at this proximity, and it had been loud in an open space. Here, in a closed-off echo chamber, a blaster bolt would serve as an alarm in itself. No need for any fancy klaxons.

"I'm not stressin'." Tansu puffed. But her demeanour was more stalled-out than her cousin's. Kyric seemed so calm and cavalier. Like this was an ice cream social.

"I..Uh..sorta used to just talkin' my way outta messes back home." Tansu admitted, and turned the gun over — a substitute for wringing her hands. "S-should I have done that? Y'know, acted first, talked later? Lin's good at that..."

____________________________________________________________
Kyric
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Kyric]

"I..Uh..sorta used to just talkin' my way outta messes back home." Tansu admitted, and turned the gun over — a substitute for wringing her hands. "S-should I have done that? Y'know, acted first, talked later? Lin's good at that..."

"Form zero is the most important part of conflict resolution. Anyone can puff out their chest and tell ye they'd fight anyone when pushed to the edge. It's better to avoid conflict and reach a peaceful resolution. Barrin' Sith and the like." Kyric tried not to come off like the stuffy teachers he imagined back on Coruscant. He knew damn well he couldn't sell textbook training to either of the Treicolt Twins.

"At the end of the day, I believe we all have a part to play in this here galaxy. The Force seems to have a hand in how a lot of things turn out." He paused at BD-8's approaching footsteps. The metallic echoes sounded as if the droid were prancing along the tables. "When all else fails, I listen to my instincts. I've gotta believe in me if I'm ever to expect you or your sister to."

The Big Chieftain expelled a small data chip at Kyric upon arrival. "What's this?" He asked as he deftly plucked it out of the air. BD-8 intoned a long string of binary that revealed an upcoming shift change in preparation for an inspection.

"Looks like that's our queue," Kyric pocketed the drive. He eyed the unconscious guard for a moment longer. "I'm curious," stepping up beside her, the Jedi watched her out of his peripheral while shoving extra whose-its and mecha-bobbles into his pack. "What do you think? Should you be shootin' first and asking questions later? Or should your sister maybe exercise a bit more caution?"

____________________________________________________________

Tansu Treicolt ​

 

[Tansu Treicolt]

​

"Form zero is the most important part of conflict resolution. Anyone can puff out their chest and tell ye they'd fight anyone when pushed to the edge. It's better to avoid conflict and reach a peaceful resolution. Barrin' Sith and the like."

Form Zero wasn't a new concept to Tansu. It wasn't one that was readily adopted at home, though. Especially not by Maynard Treicolt — and all the mean streak the girls had came from their Pa, they were certain of it. She made a small noise like a snort and made a face at Kyric. He'd spent enough summers on the homestead to know what conflict resolution looked like once the Treicolt patriarch donned his dusty blue armour.

"At the end of the day, I believe we all have a part to play in this here galaxy. The Force seems to have a hand in how a lot of things turn out. When all else fails, I listen to my instincts. I've gotta believe in me if I'm ever to expect you or your sister to."

"Yeah." She huffed out absently and felt the weight of the blaster in her hands. Did she believe the guard would have really shot her? For what, rummaging? Did his paycheque get a bonus if he brought a scalp in?

Her fingers smoothed over the violent lines of metal and felt tiny stories flash to life. Whirrs and whips of moments that didn't belong to her, but gave deeper perspective to the person who'd been prepared to shoot her. Training day hustle. Target practice again and again and again. Rejected vacation requests. Overtime. Target practice again, good! Finally got it. She stopped the moments before she recognized their current scene. She wasn't ready to see what she looked like when a gun pointed at her. Just so happened to be the same time BD-8 drawled out the timecrunch they were under.

"Right." Tansu dropped to a crouch and shoved the blaster into her bag. "I got everythin'. Ready to go! Ohh, yes, good call on a few more 'o those navcubes."

What do you think? Should you be shootin' first and asking questions later? Or should your sister maybe exercise a bit more caution?"

For some reason, the question felt heavier than the weight of the blaster had been in her hands. Her eyes were wide, and her mind scrambled for the right response. "I..I dunno. Really depends on the situation. I don't wanna say nuthin' that would put Tal in the wrong." she gestured to the crumpled body of the guard behind them as they walked back to the route they came in from. They'd have to hoist themselves back up through the vents with heavier packs than before.

"All I can say for certain though, is I'm definitely hestitatin'. I can't help but reckon some of these folks are only here for circumstance. I don't want to be the reason they die. That ain't how we become the heroes ma, pa and uncle Ryv were. And that's all we wanna be."

____________________________________________________________
Kyric
____________________________________________________________
​

 

[Kyric]

Tansu's complete disregard for Kyric's opener wasn't the biggest surprise to him. As far as their large family went, he was most invested in the Jedi mantle. His cousins had yet to take up a saber for a greater purpose. Tansu and Talin alike were young women on the verge of self-discovery. No time-honored tradition could slow them down. Not yet, anyway.

"I..I dunno. Really depends on the situation. I don't wanna say nuthin' that would put Tal in the wrong."

"All I can say for certain though, is I'm definitely hestitatin'. I can't help but reckon some of these folks are only here for circumstance. I don't want to be the reason they die. That ain't how we become the heroes ma, pa and uncle Ryv were. And that's all we wanna be."

Conflict lingered at the forefront of her thoughts–not a surprise given Kyric's framing, so he focused on their escape and considered his next words. He led her back to the hatch they dropped from and squatted down to hoist her back up and into the passage. Once they were both back in the maintenance shaft, he continued.

"Truth is a fickle thing, kid. Our truth about our family ain't always gonna be the truth you hear in the galaxy." Kyric's conversation with the New Jedi Order's Grandmaster came to mind. None of them knew his father's truth, yet they damned him anyway. "If you wanna be a hero, and my old man is the shoulder by which yer lookin' to measure yourself, things ain't gonna be easy. Both you and your sister are off to a good start, but you've each plenty of room to grow."

Kyric scanned for stormtroopers at the end of the tunnel. With nothing in sight, he removed the wall-mounted panel as he did earlier, and allowed Tansu to cross back to the leftover construction supplies turned cover. He followed after her, darting from crate to crate until they stood at the edge of the bay. Their ship awaited them in its oblong way, untouched and undiscovered by the station's defenders.

"Just don't get ahead of yourself, alright? Sometimes, discretion really is the better part of valor."

Tansu Treicolt ​