Knights of the Old Republic: Rise of the Reavers

[Comrade Tortoise]

Asarak raised his own eyebrow in a combination of curiosity and thankfullness. He would definitely need the help of a peer if he was going to get back into the swing of things, as well as unlearn bad habits.

"I am not sure in this case the phrase applies. However it is a pleasure to meet you, and I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise, Padawan Asarak." Riv smirked just a little.

The Shistavanen bowed to the Hortek as a greeting. "I am sure this will be an important learning experience for the both of us."

"I certainly hope so. Five years on the run, serving as my own master gave me some bad habits. Or accentuated the ones lurking under the surface. Here for five minutes I already made an arrogant fool of myself, and without meaning to I continue to do so. Hopefully having someone to smack me around, literally and figuratively, will help curb that tendency."

Asarak glanced down at those practice sticks

"If you would like, we can start immediately by setting rules of engagement. However such fun little activities can always wait for another time if you would prefer. I am...anxious to see what bad habits I obtained from not having an equal to train with for so long"

[Cynical Cat]

"Of course I remember goodman Sana," he replied as he rose to take Kelran's hand. "And its good to see you again as well. Please be seated. I took the liberty of ordering a good wine and some zarcoon paste stuffed qualti puffs as an appetizer."

[LadyTevar]

Trys sat and made polite conversation while waiting for the wine and appetizers. She let the conversation drift along -- catching up on family and friends, discussing news from Rim and Core Worlds -- expecting her uncle to save up the real reason for the visit for dessert.

Until then, she would act the well-bred society belle that her mother wanted her to be ... but a lot less void-brained.

[Cynical Cat]

The gang braced itself to be hit by a raging Wookie. It took a moment for them to realize that he was fleeing, not attacking. With loud whoops of their own they ran down the skyway in pursuit.

[Cynical Cat]

"So," said Neilus as he scanned the menu, "how was the trip? Not too many people shooting at you I trust? Have you decided on a main course? The fruga fish and punji fish is delicious and wonderfully low calorie but I suppose you younger folk are somewhat hungrier. The sabru stake and wintoku cutlets are justly famous."

[Hotfoot]

Zyke's selection of food was less refined and more...adventurous. He really didn't know what most of the ingredients were, but what he did recognize guided him to a selection of foods that looked filling and were completely unlike anything he had seen before. "Well, once we broke the atmosphere it was very peaceful. I don't think we'll be welcome back there for a while though, not that I'll miss the place much."

[Cynical Cat]

"Bah," said Neilus Stravos. "Mandragal was a hole, run by people who should have been working there as convict labor. But that would take resources the Republic simply can't spare to waste on a dying company on the fringes of space. That's the bloody problem. The Mandalorian Wars have almost been over for ten years and they mark the mid point in the waves of crisis that have struck the Republic. Nearly two decades of constant troubles. The galactic economy is in tattters, tax revenue is down, the navy has been hammered by war, whole worlds have been burned and need to be rebuilt, and we have so gods damned few resources to rebuild with. The Republic has been piling on war debt for nearly two decades. There simply isn't enough to go around."

[Hotfoot]

Zyke nodded with a sigh, knowing full well the state of the galaxy after the long wars that had plagued the Republic over the last several decades. "It's a rough time. I know I've heard a lot of grumbling from a lot of places we stop by. How have your projects been faring?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Fairly well. The Hutts have encountered some . . . setbacks which means they have less leverage with which to twist our arms. Czerka is still invested all of its dirty war money into reconstruction projects with deals that will allow them to control large chunks of a system's economy for decades, but there's not much I can do about that. We are finding more lost Jedi and new students, so we may have more problems on that front."

Neilus paused to take a drink of wine. "Piracy is a big problem. Two decades of the navy being busy fighting wars not pirates have let them grow. The navy's hurting now and that's not helping nor are all the gray zones that exist around the borders with the worlds the Sith stripped from the Republic. There numbers have been swelled by deserters from both sides, the surviving Sith, mercenaries, and other scum who smell blood in the water. The amount of arms and war material floating through the galaxy hasn't helped either. It's only a matter of time before some pirate lord gathers enough strength and sees how badly the Republic is hurting and decides to become the next Xim the Despot. Interested in doing something about it?"

[Hotfoot]

"Well I'm always interested in giving pirates and slavers a hard time. The details are always a bit rough, but that's why explosives were invented. Chances are Dewaddik would be up for it as well. Trys?" Zyke took a drink of something that was in front of him, looking to Trys for an idea of her opinion of the whole thing.

[LadyTevar]

Trys had been listening as Zyke asked the important questions. His background alone gave him a better insight to the problems Uncle Neilus was detailing. "There's been a few mutterings about small-vessel traders running into pirates, or simply going missing in certain areas," Trys replied. "Not only is that not good for business, it hurts the Republic by making it seem unable to protect trade."

She took a sip of the wine, then looked at her Uncle calmly. "What did you have in mind, Uncle?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Small vessel?" Neilus laughed. "You've got to get out more girl. This isn't about a few small fry disappearing. Some of the pirate ships are bloody cruisers. Super freighters go missing off major trade routes. Some of the pirates are quite willing to shoot it out with navy patrols."

[LadyTevar]

"Which again comes back to the question, Uncle," Trys replied in the same calm tone, now that HE had been the one to bring up the full magnitude of piracy. "What did you have in mind for my crew, when faced with full Cruisers?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Before an enemy can be destroyed, they must be found," said Neilus. "And pirates are very much in the business of not being found. There are too many uncharted systems, too many independent worlds, and too much space to combing the galaxy to be quick and easy. Stomping on a pirate nest here or there isn't enough.

"But they do have to sell their loot and buy supplies. A lot of corporations made a lot of money selling war material over the last two decades and now the market's crashed. Some of them aren't too picky about who they sell too. Some worlds and business are quite happy to pose as the business of legitimate buyers and resell at a profit to less reputable clients. They also tend to be in the business of buying and selling questionable cargoes.

"The questionable cargo business attracts all sorts of people. Scum from every part of the galaxy from small time smugglers to the Exchange. And everyone knows Corellians are half smugglers anyway."

[LadyTevar]

"Us? Half Smuggler?" Trys mock-protested. "Please, we're three-quarters at least." she added with a wicked grin. "So, you're wanting us to either be buyers or sellers, and try to get into the network?"

[Agent Fisher]

Kel had stayed silent through most of the conversation, since he was the most junior member of the crew.

He chuckled. "Speak for yourself, Trys, some Corellians actually do honest labor."

[frigidmagi]

The gang braced itself to be hit by a raging Wookie. It took a moment for them to realize that he was fleeing, not attacking. With loud whoops of their own they ran down the skyway in pursuit.

Dewaddik dug into the run, using his longer legs to his advantage. The drunk human female was no real problem. Human girls were fairly light and small compared to even young Wookies. She was babbling something, Dewaddik did catch something running faster as the gang was gaining.

He defintely needed something that would space them out and cancel the numbers advantage. Even as buzzed as he was, he could take a single lightly armed Twi'lek thug. Hell, he could take two or three! He was a full grown military trained Wookie! A dozen? Even full gown military trained Wookies had limits...

He turned a corner, the whoops and hunting cries were getting closer, and saw that perhaps there was a force in the galaxy that answered Wookie prayers..

A tower was being rebuilt, more stories added on, expanding some layers, whatever. The important thing was it would be easy to climb up all exposed inturds and what not. Well... Easy for him.

[Cynical Cat]

"Buyers, of course," said Neilus. "Gives you an excuse to try and go to the source for better prices, but play it anyway you think you can make it work."

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As Dewaddik hit the construction site a line of Twilek thugs followed him. Below him the building stretched for kilometers through darkness and fog until it rested on Coruscant's surface. About forty meters below there was a solid floor, littered with rubble. Stretching a kilometer above that floor was superstructure of girders and support beams along with gantries, ladders, stairs, and walkways. Lights flashed from the head beams of a score of roughly human sized, legless construction droids as they floated on repuslor lifts and replaced damaged beams.

[LadyTevar]

Trys looked over to Zyke and gave him a very wide smile. "Pity Marcus left, he would have loved buying new toys. So would 'Waddik." Her eyes twinkled with glee as she finished by asking "What new toys would you like Zyke, Kel?"

[Charon]

"I certainly hope so. Five years on the run, serving as my own master gave me some bad habits. Or accentuated the ones lurking under the surface. Here for five minutes I already made an arrogant fool of myself, and without meaning to I continue to do so. Hopefully having someone to smack me around, literally and figuratively, will help curb that tendency."

Asarak glanced down at those practice sticks

"If you would like, we can start immediately by setting rules of engagement. However such fun little activities can always wait for another time if you would prefer. I am...anxious to see what bad habits I obtained from not having an equal to train with for so long"

Riv remained silent for now as to his own time spent away from the academy, but a brief rundown on Asarak's time on the run gave him an idea of what he might be dealing with.

When Asarak pointed to the practice sticks, Riv raised a hairy eyebrow, and then shook his head. "Perhaps later, I've been at practice for several hours now. Besides, you no doubt still need to familiarize yourself with the temple again."

[Hotfoot]

"Well, I'm always interested in new explosives, but maybe we can get some nice upgrades for the ships and such." Zyke smiled at the thought of getting new equipment of questionable legality.

[Comrade Tortoise]

"I certainly hope so. Five years on the run, serving as my own master gave me some bad habits. Or accentuated the ones lurking under the surface. Here for five minutes I already made an arrogant fool of myself, and without meaning to I continue to do so. Hopefully having someone to smack me around, literally and figuratively, will help curb that tendency."

Asarak glanced down at those practice sticks

"If you would like, we can start immediately by setting rules of engagement. However such fun little activities can always wait for another time if you would prefer. I am...anxious to see what bad habits I obtained from not having an equal to train with for so long"

Riv remained silent for now as to his own time spent away from the academy, but a brief rundown on Asarak's time on the run gave him an idea of what he might be dealing with.

When Asarak pointed to the practice sticks, Riv raised a hairy eyebrow, and then shook his head. "Perhaps later, I've been at practice for several hours now. Besides, you no doubt still need to familiarize yourself with the temple again."

Asarak's labial scales were more or less immobile, but his ocular scales had a good number of muscle attachments that could be used to signal emotion. Those movements combined with a slight shoulder slump indicated a light disappointment.

"Very well. Some other time then. I will content myself with practice droids for a time. Then will reacquaint myself with the temple."

He needed to practice against blasters anyway, weaknesses had been pointed out to him by his recent flight on the planet, and he needed to figure out a way to protect himself against flying shrapnel.

He walked over to where the little spherical practice drones were kept, programmed in a routine and stepped into a training circle.

[LadyTevar]

Trys smiled at Zyke, one that shared his love of New Toys, as well as pleasure at knowing him so well. "Then it's settled," she said, looking back to Uncle Neilus. "Now it's just the matter of where we'll get the money for the purchases, and what to do once we get the info needed to bust them up."

There were other concerns, of course, but Uncle Neilus couldn't help them if they got in over their heads. That was something the Sunrise's crew would have to work out themselves.

[Cynical Cat]

"I'm not asking you to buy anything my dear, I'm asking you to pretend to be buyers so you can gather information," he said. "And you were just paid, rather handsomely if I say so myself. And you'll be getting half upfront and since I'm paying triple . . . ."

[LadyTevar]

Trys rose enough out of her seat to drop a kiss on her uncle's cheek. "You're too good to me," she teased.