Private A Simple Job

[Meri Vale]

Meri knew something was off the moment she stepped onto the Aurora Crown.

It wasn't one thing she could point to. Just a quiet pressure in the air, a subtle wrongness that made her shoulders tense as she walked deeper into the ship. The corridors were too spotless for a freighter. Too empty. Too controlled. Even the lighting felt unnatural—dimmed in a way that made shadows stretch long across the deck.

By the time she reached the cargo bay, her fingers had already curled tightly around her notebook.

A holotable stood at the center of the room, its projection flickering with the crest of their employer, Dundee Crocdon. He had been the one to hire them for what sounded like an uncomplicated job: pick up a crate, deliver it, and collect payment. Simple. Straightforward. Safe enough that Meri had convinced herself it would be fine.

But the room was empty—no welcoming party. No crew. Not even a crate in sight.

Just that unsteady hologram casting pale light across the metal floor.

She lingered near its edge, trying to quiet the uneasy flutter in her chest. Something wasn't right—and the longer she stood there, the more the feeling tightened.

A sudden stutter ran through the projection, static snapping across the emitter. The holotable shifted images with a brief, disorienting flash—too quick for her to understand what she'd seen, only fast enough to leave a cold prickle down her spine.

Then the hologram cut out completely. For a second, there was only silence. The next second, everything changed.

Alarms blared overhead, sharp and blindingly loud in the enclosed space. Red emergency lights strobed to life along the walls, painting the bay in harsh, pulsing color. Meri flinched back instinctively, clutching her notebook tighter as the sound echoed through the ship.

Doors slammed shut around the perimeter, each one sealing with the heavy finality of deep-lock clamps. Panels flashed crimson. The deck vibrated under her boots as systems she couldn't identify powered up, humming with a rising energy that made her pulse race.

This wasn't a normal alarm. This wasn't part of the job.

Something had been triggered—something meant to keep people in, not out.

Meri's breath came shallow as she turned toward the nearest exit, only to find the blast door sealed tight, its control panel blinking an unyielding red. She tried another door with the same result. Everywhere she looked, the ship had closed itself like a trap snapping shut.

Somewhere deeper inside, metal crashed against metal—voices or machinery or something else entirely—but the alarms drowned out anything distinct.

Meri stood still for a moment, trying to steady her breathing, trying to understand what had just happened. This was no simple pickup. No routine contract. Whatever Varro Vex had promised them…it wasn't this. She swallowed hard, forcing herself not to panic, not to freeze.

The job had become something else. And she was already caught inside it.

Liin Terallo Brinna Dara RedSword77 Sorr Kortu

 

[Sorr Kortu]

Current Outfit
Fortuna Lecit

There was a reason why Smugglers were attached to their ships. It was basically their home, and the Smuggler is familiar with every hiding place and unique setting that they installed. It gave the Smugglers a sense of safety and it was the closest thing they had to normality while travelling the Galaxy. Sorr in his pursuit for more credits ignored that and instead entered the client's ship for a mission. He and his crew were tasked in transporting precious cargo to the Outer Rim. The client was a Crocodile like person named: Dundee Crocdon: A space pirate who terrorized the Outer Rim and took what he wanted. As brutal as he was, Dundee did treat the Smugglers he hired well. At least that's what Sorr heard, the mission was simple: Complete the run and return to Dundee's ship for pay out.

One problem..... as soon as they landed, the blast doors sealed tight leaving Sorr and his crew trapped in his ship. "Hey!" Sorr shouted in a panic as the alarms began to ring. "What's the big idea?!"

"Sorry kid!" A voice rang out. "I've gotten into some trouble with a friend of mine and you and your little friends will be the perfect fall guys!"

"What are you talking about Dundee?!" Sorr yelled his hand on touching his Blaster Pistol.

Dundee cackled. "He found out about the cargo!" He said. "And he is coming to take it and no doubt blame me for it! But I can just kill you all and frame you for this! Troopers! Attack them!"

Another mission that blew up in Sorr's face. He really sucks at choosing them did he? "All right guys!" Sorr said. "The last thing we need to do IS TO PANIC!"

As he screamed, 10 henchmen approached the group rifles at the ready.

Brinna Dara Meri Vale Roark Garnett RedSword77 Liin Terallo

 

[Roark Garnett]

This was definitely not the change of address Roark had signed up for. What had been supposed to be an easy milk run was now a death trap with blaring alarms and ten heavies armed with rifles approaching to make a kill.

No prisoners, just cold bodies.

Tn blaster rifles, high-powered buggers with an autofire option.

Just brilliant. In comparison, being on the death list of a loan shark was healthy.

"Tell you what Sorr." Roark shouted to no one in particular "Your reptile friend is not worth a pair of shoes on a Coruscant shopping mile."

He drew his blaster, took aim and fired into the control panel of the hangar door, locking it indefinitely. Wasn´t his ship. So why not wreck it?

"No, I´m not out of my mind," Roark declared and for once he actually believed himself. "Now they have to cut through the door first. Buys us some time to find out who Dundee´s friend is and contact him. And while they sort out their friendship we can try to make an exit."

He looked hopefully at Meri.

"You would not know how to slice a ships database, would you? Anyone else perhaps?"

Brinna Dara Meri Vale Sorr Kortu RedSword77 Liin Terallo

 

[RedSword77]

Looking at Roark and Meri, RED looked around the room. "When the time is right, we will get out of here. There was a communication I intercepted from someone called Dundee? And Sorr, it appears we are to take the fall for something I have no idea about," said RED in his normal non-emotional tone. Then, look at the smoking panel that controlled the cargo bay ramp. "Roark," It said in a frustrated tone.
"It will take me a week to fix that, you blaster happy clown. You could've just asked me, and I could've turned off the panel or door. Now we are trapped in this room for now," the droid said as fact.
Suddenly, panels shifted on Red-1, making him look even more menacing. "Switching on rescue stance. Preparing to evacuate this cargo bay," announced RED-1, starting to walk towards a door into the ship. "You know we could have gone outside, but someone wanted to shoot up controls," commented RED as he walked.

Roark Garnett Sorr Kortu Meri Vale Liin Terallo Brinna Dara

 

[Roark Garnett]

Roark raised an eyebrow in the general direction of the droid.

"I may be a clown you tea kettle but this is not my circus. And if these bad guys with the blaster rifles get to us, the only thing damaged beyond repair will be us. We heard th communication too and it says they want us cold and full of nice holes because dead scapegoats don´t talk. Since you hold a doctorate in starship repair, you probably recon that there must be a ventilation or maintenance shaft somewhere around here."

Roark started to look around for a hatch.

"Unless you want to help Dundee´s guys by improving their rifles, would you help me find the exit, please?"


RedSword77 Sorr Kortu Meri Vale Liin Terallo Brinna Dara

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri flinched at the sudden burst of blaster fire, the alarms, the shouting. Noise piled on top of noise until her thoughts felt like they were scrambling to catch up. She pressed herself instinctively against a dividing beam, notebook clutched against her chest as if it might shield her from the rising panic.

Roark's question — "You wouldn't know how to slice a ship's database, would you?" — landed like a spotlight aimed directly at her.

" I-I'm not a slicer," she said quickly, voice thin with nerves.

Another blast rattled the bulkhead. Ten armed mercenaries. A sealed bay. No exits. Too many variables, too many moving parts, but—

Her eyes darted upward.

The patterns on the ceiling paneling.
The spacing of the emergency lights.
The slight asymmetry in the bulkhead seams.

Something clicked.

"I'm not a slicer," she repeated, steadier now, "but—this ship isn't built like a standard freighter. It's older. Modified. The ventilation and maintenance shafts wouldn't be on the main deck schematics."

She stepped forward a careful inch, raising her notebook slightly as though it might explain her thinking.

"These panels—" she pointed toward a section of wall most would overlook, "—they aren't aligned with the rest. See how the seams sit half a centimeter off-pattern? That's deliberate. Hidden access panels use irregular spacing so they blend into the surrounding architecture."

Her breath caught as shouting echoed from the sealed ramp.

"If there's a maintenance shaft in this room," she whispered, "it's probably behind that inset section. The one with the uneven frame." She swallowed. "Older ships used them as crawlspaces for power relays."

She looked briefly toward Roark, then RED-1, then Sorr.

"I… I think that's our way out. If someone can get the panel open."

Her hands tightened nervously around her notebook.
She wasn't brave.
She wasn't a slicer.
But this — patterns — she understood.

"I can show you where," she added softly. "If someone else can… make it move."
Roark Garnett RedSword77 Sorr Kortu Liin Terallo Brinna Dara

 

[Liin Terallo]

The alarms. The blasters aimed towards us. The feeling of being trapped. I have gone through similar experiences before. And all because of my successful research into the Synthetic Force. But it was too successful. So much so that it had caused me to always be on the run. But constantly being on the run cost credits. And I was not about to constantly ask for handoits from friends. Especially when I had no way right now to pay them back.

This job was supposed to change that. Instead this job is serving as a reminder of what I am trying to flee.

However as soon as we had boarded this pirate's vessel; I had felt something familiar. Something was reaching out to me; like a flower leaning towards the sunlight to try to reach it. What was in that cargo? Could it be mine? I had to know for sure. And no doubt it was sealed behind one of the doors.

Miss Meri seemed to have an idea of how to open it. She just needed the access. "If we could find a crowbar or something; that could work."

Tags: Meri Vale Sorr Kortu RedSword77 Roark Garnett Brinna Dara

 

[Brinna Dara]

Objective: Survive the double cross
Location: Aroura Crown
Outfit: Red top black skirt
Tags: Sorr Kortu | Roark Garnett | RedSword77 | Liin Terallo | Meri Vale

Brinna just knew this would happen. It was a shame she was so inexperienced at making deals and taking jobs. That she always needed a flow of credits to cover Shoan's gambling debts. And that she was so protective of Sorr that she couldn't walk away from him and the Tiaza's Purr. She dreaded receiving a message from Tiaza whenever she was apart from Sorr that he had gotten in trouble.

Instead she stayed on as the co-leader of the crew and did her best to bust through the trouble that seemed to cling to Sorr like he was flypaper. Of course this new job was no different. As the alarms rang out through the client's ship Brinna sighed and looked around at the new crew. How long would they put up with these shenanigans? Long enough for Sorr to find his way to pick jobs more carefully? Or just long enough to earn a few credits and leave her and Sorr to pick a new crew. Brinna never blamed any of the crew who left. But somehow Sorr's luck always turned up rosy in the end.

Brinna dropped into a fighting stance as "guards approached. Before their adversaries got too close however Rourk shot out the door's control panel essentially locking the crew in and the guards out. He then asked for a slicer, which made Brinna laugh. "Expert slicer here, but like RED says, if you didn't fry something essential this would take forever to fix. I could maybe gain some access from the holo table, but it would take some time I am betting."

As Brinna was "breaking into" the holo table's circuits, Meri was doing her own problem solving. The girl mentioned something about the roof. Meri mentioned relay crawl spaces and Brinna laughed again. A good hearted short laugh. "You got us into this Captain, help Meri and Liin get us out," she said tossing Sorr a tool that could be used to pry a panel open.

 

[RedSword77]

The Droid just looked back at Roark, giving a downward look.... replied with just a ah.. then turned back to the wall in front of red. Not too far from a bulkhead to the main ship. "A circus might be a good description of our situation. But you are all young. I should have seen this coming." RED-1 studied the wall with a red grid projected for RED-1.
"Lesson One, Blaster Head. All doors have an emergency release in case the door is closed or cannot be opened, and someone needs to be rescued. Now, on warships, it is a pain to get to. Freighter class, not so much," said RED as something slips into his hand, and it puts a detchment on it. "Oh, I will have an exit shortly," stated RED-1 as the droid worked.

As the first fastener bolt came out of the wall panel. "Crowbar? Why does everything have to be destroyed with you guys?" said RED, answering Liin with an almost sigh in its tone, as another fastener bolt came out of the wall panel and fell to the ground. "Ships are made to come apart, without you breaking things you all know. Unless you are a Jedi, they have a habit of just cutting through things," commented RED-1 as there was a sound of another fastener bolt hitting the ground.

"And the holo table would take too long, or some other vents, not that all of us could get through them anyway." the droid said as the sound of another fastener bolt hit the ground "Two more, and they can shoot at the ramp door all day long with regular blasters and just makes dints it would take a cannon to get through that." declared RED-1.

As if on cue, the ship vibrated with a blast, and a loud pop noise echoed in the cargo bay. "Of course, they have a cannon," remarked RED-1 in frustration.


Brinna Dara Liin Terallo Meri Vale Roark Garnett Sorr Kortu Ran Serys

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri flinched hard when the ship shuddered, the dull pop of the cannon echoing through the cargo bay. The vibration rattled through her boots and straight up her spine, leaving her breath caught somewhere between panic and instinct.

She pressed herself briefly against the nearest crate, fingers digging into the edge of her notebook until the tremor in her hands steadied. This was too close to memories she tried not to revisit—doors sealed, exits denied, time running thin.

But RED-1's voice cut through the noise with something she could cling to: structure.

Emergency releases.
Freighter-class construction.
Panels meant to come apart.

Meri pushed herself upright again, eyes snapping to the wall the droid was working on. She watched the grid projection, the fastener points, the spacing between them—her fear pulling back just enough to let her mind engage.

"The cannon won't help them much," she said quietly, more observation than reassurance. "The ramp's reinforced along load-bearing seams. If they keep firing there, they're wasting time."

She edged closer—not in RED-1's way, but near enough to see what he was doing.

"They're trying the obvious path," she continued, voice steadier now. "Which means we shouldn't."

Her gaze traced the bulkhead, following the irregular spacing she'd noticed earlier—the same kind of asymmetry she'd seen in older freighter modifications.

"RED-1's right," she added, nodding slightly toward the droid. "These panels weren't designed to be forced. They were designed to be removed."

She pointed—not touching—toward the section just above where RED-1 was working.

"That panel sits half a fraction deeper than the rest. It isn't structural. It's an access cover hiding the relay crawlspace." A breath. "If we get that open, we won't need to outrun them. We'll just… stop being where they expect us to be."

Another distant impact reverberated through the hull.

Meri swallowed, then looked briefly toward Sorr, Brinna, Liin—anyone who might need to hear this.

"We don't need speed," she said softly. "We just need a direction they aren't watching."

Her hands tightened around her notebook again—not fear this time, but focus—as she waited for the next fastener to come loose.

 

[Roark Garnett]

"Meri is correct," Roark added with a nod and with a sideways glance towards RED-1 he added, "Even being the blaster happy clown of this crew I´m not going to fight te rifles and a cannon. We´ve got to evade the and enlist Dundee´s partner for help. The enemy of my enemy and all that. Last but no least we need this nice ship to get away and then we can sell it to cover our expenses and troubles."

Seeing that Meri was already scared enough as it was, he swalloed the remark ... assuming we survive it. Instead he looked thoughtfully at the young lady, not girl but lady.

"You are smarter tan you give yourself credit for And braver too. Good plan."#

Meri Vale RedSword77 Sorr Kortu Brinna Dara Liin Terallo

 

[Liin Terallo]

Something had caught my attention. But it wasn't the crew trying to find a way out of this mess. It wasn't the sound of blaster fire and cannon fire from the enemies outside. It was a feeling. A feeling that I have felt a few times before as of late. I had come to recognize this feeling. One of those crates held something that was mine; biomolecules. Somehow one of my hidden caches of it must of been discovered by those brutes, and they probably meant to sell them.

I am glad that that plan is going to be quashed.

While the majority of the crew look for a way to secure a way out; I find myself pinpointing the exact crate's location. The Synthetic Force within me was developed with biomolecules. It is a rare resource known only to exist in New Cov; my homeworld and one that I had led for a few years, up until it was invaded.

It did not take long for me to find the crate. It was smaller than the others; not much bigger than a case of luggage. I ran my fingers along it, feeling it's edges while the static energy within my skin began to build and interact with the biomolecules inside. Cannistors lay within the crate. I just hoped that none of them were broken.

Tags: Meri Vale Roark Garnett RedSword77 Sorr Kortu Brinna Dara

 

[Sorr Kortu]

Current Outfit
Fortuna Lecit

It seemed that everyone knew what they were doing. Everyone except for Sorr that is. Roark Garnett closed the blast doors before the Croc troops managed to close in. "You're only delaying the inevitable!" Dundee yelled through the intercom. "You're in my house and in my house! Guests who destroy my stuff will have their heads hung on my walls!"

Sorr barely held onto the tool as he stared at Meri Vale . "We're gonna have to hurry guys!" Sorr yelled. "That blast door ain't going to hold for long!"

"That's right Sorr!" Dundee laughed. "My men are working on the override controls as we speak! You are all going to be corpses in no time!"

"Oh man!" Sorr nodded to Meri who mentioned that there was a crawlspace that could have them evade the troops. "That is a good plan Meri," Sorr said. "Right now the Purr is being held by an electromagnetic field. The generator is here in the ship somewhere and we can't go anywhere without their tractor beam pulling us in."

He took a deep breath trying to erase the panic within. "We'll need to split into two groups." He said. "One will have take care of the generator for the electromagnetic field and the other will have to shut down the tractor beam."

Brinna Dara Liin Terallo RedSword77

 

[Roark Garnett]

The crocodie was positively starting to get on Roark´s nerves. Or maybe it was the guys with the auto rifles on the other side of the blast door. that surely would not last much longer.

"Since I´m the blaster clown around here, and so awfully good at blowing up things, I go for the tractor beam." Roark announced aloud, "I know my way around ships and I think know where the power couplings are.". At the same time he stepped close to Sorr and whispered in his ear, "Am I the only one who has the bad feeling Croc can listen in to us over the intrcom? Let´s be a little more discreet.".

Then he went for the maintenance shaft. but he did not plan to go for the tractor beam He planned on surprising Dundee. So far the reptile had always been one step ahead of them. Time to change that.

Sorr Kortu Meri Vale RedSword77 Liin Terallo Brinna Dara

 

[RedSword77]

As the panel hit the ground with a clank, RED-1 said, "Remember, they can hear us talking." The droid reached into the space in front of him. With a metallic pop, the door unlocked. With that, RED-1 pulled on a lever, pumping it back and forth, and the door opened slowly. RED said nothing, just motioned to the doorway, telling them they could go.
As people started to leave the droid, it walked towards the ramp and stopped. It quickly moved some crates to the side, stacking them, making a way to the door. Pulling up some floor panel grates, it bent down and ripped out some cableing from underneath. The lights went out in the cargo bay. With a new tool, RED attached the cables on both sides of the grate. Placing the grate back, a few sparks flew.
If or when Dundee´s men came, they would be a surprise. It would not kill them. The power was not enough, but it electrified them, knocking them off their feet and out for a few minutes. RED-1 knew he still had a few minutes. Making sure everyone was out. The Droid moved to the door quickly, pushing it closed, and equipped the fusion torch to weld it shut with a few spot welds.
Moving down the hall to the engine room, RED-1 did not waste time with the fastener bolts. It just used the fusion torch to blow them out. RED dropped the panel to the floor and opened the door to the engine room. It walked inside, closed it behind him, and tacked it shut. Turning to the panels started his over ride persecutors.
Activating his Comms to the crew, "RED-1, four mikes, RED out." That's all the droid said. Some would understand, others might not. He had no time to explain, as internal communication had been shut down.


Roark Garnett Sorr Kortu Liin Terallo Meri Vale Brinna Dara

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri's breath caught when Sorr said split into two groups.

Not because it was a bad idea—but because it made everything suddenly real in a way planning hadn't. Planning lived in her head, in patterns and routes and contingencies. Splitting meant movement. Noise. Separation. Risk.

She forced herself to inhale slowly through her nose, then exhale just as carefully, grounding herself in the feel of the deck beneath her boots. Panic would help no one. Especially not now.

"The crawlspace will keep us off their sensors for a short distance," she said quietly, speaking only when there was a gap to be heard. Her voice did not rise, did not rush. "But it branches. If we hesitate too long at the junction, we'll lose the advantage."

Her eyes flicked briefly to the sealed door—then away. She did not look at the blasters. She had learned, long ago, that staring at threats made them louder.

"If the tractor beam generator is tied into the ship's primary power grid," she continued, piecing it together as she spoke, "then disabling it should also disrupt internal tracking. Not permanently. Just long enough."

She hesitated, then added, softer:

"That's when we move. Not before."

Her hands curled briefly at her sides, the familiar tension settling in her shoulders. She did not volunteer herself for anything specific. She never did. But she didn't step back either.

"I can navigate the crawlspace," Meri said. "I won't be fast—but I won't get lost."

That, at least, she knew was true.

As RED-1 began to move with quiet, decisive efficiency, Meri felt a flicker of relief she didn't let show. Structure was returning. The chaos was being shaped into something survivable.

She waited for direction, eyes sharp now despite the fear still humming under her skin—ready to move when the moment came, not because she was fearless, but because standing still was no longer an option.

RedSword77 Liin Terallo Brinna Dara Sorr Kortu Roark Garnett

 

[Liin Terallo]

There was a time when an invention that I was working on would of been helpful in situations like this. Before New Cov was taken over, my team and I were working on a biomolecule-infused gel that could be dispersed on the outer hull plating of certain parts of a ship; thereby removing the magnetism that was commonly used to prevent ships from taking off. However the foreign occupation had me shelve that project while my parents forced me to flee as both them and other government officials enacted the Occupation Protocol.

Once New Cov is free, I will be able to continue in that research.

But until then I find myself here. Under lockdown inside of a ship that was being attacked. I had found a small crate containing those precious biomolecules, and I would be damned if I left here without them.

My mind was oblivious to the others while I frantically searched for a tool to open the crate up. My biometrics were not exactly a match to open the lock.

At least we were not going anywhere.

Tags: Meri Vale Sorr Kortu RedSword77 Roark Garnett Brinna Dara

 

[Roark Garnett]

Inside the maintenance shaft Roark was NOT heading for the tractor beams main power coupling: No sir! He had announced this lan aloud so that Dundee would hear it and send another welcome committee there. The thinner the reptile had to stretch his fire power, the better.

Power couplings were for amateur anyway. Roark was heading for – or rather crawling – the ships command center, a stout tower structure squatting above the main engines on the aft of the ship. There he could take out the controls of all systems and perhaps Reptile Dundee too. If you want to catch a band of thieves you have to catch their captain first

A few corridor crossings later…

Roark crawled through the narrow ventilation shaft, his blaster clanking against the metal walls with every awkward shuffle. The air was stale, thick with the tang of recycled oxygen and engine grease, and the dim glow of his wrist-mounted light barely cut through the claustrophobic darkness. Sweat beaded on his brow as he muttered to himself, "Of all the kriffing ideas, sneaking through a ship's vents to play hero has to be the dumbest. But hey, if I'm gonna die, might as well do it with style." His knees ached, and the shaft seemed to tighten around him like a vise with every turn, but he pressed on, driven by the sheer stubbornness that had gotten him into and out of more messes than he cared to count.

After what felt like an eternity of scraping and swearing, he spotted a faint grid of light ahead. Peering through the slatted vent cover, he saw the command center below—a circular hub of blinking consoles, holoscreens, and a panoramic viewport showing the void of space beyond. Two of Dundee's goons, burly types with reptilian scales glinting under the artificial light, stood guard near the main terminal. "Perfect," Roark grumbled under his breath. "Just what I needed. More ugly mugs to ruin my day."

He fumbled with the vent cover, his fingers slipping on the rusty latches, nearly dropping his blaster in the process. With a muffled curse, he finally popped it free, the metal clattering louder than a Bantha in a china shop. The guards spun around, rifles snapping up, but Roark was already moving. He dropped down with the grace of a drunken nerf, rolling behind a console as blaster bolts sizzled past, scorching the air where he'd been a second ago.

"Hey, fellas, let's not get personal!" he shouted, popping up to return fire. His first shot went wide, blasting a holoscreen into a shower of sparks, but the second caught one guard square in the chest, sending him sprawling with a guttural grunt. The other charged, pulling a wicked-looking vibroblade from his belt.

Roark ducked under a wild swing, "This is not a knife!" he quipped, before he yanked a small utility knife from his own gear with a flourish. "THIS is a knife!"

The guard hesitated, clearly not expecting the theatrics, and Roark seized the moment, slamming the hilt into the guy's snout. The brute crumpled, out cold. Panting, Roark turned to the command terminal, his fingers flying over the controls with the finesse of a seasoned scoundrel. He didn't bother with finesse—just blasted the panel with his blaster, frying circuits in a spectacular display of smoke and sparks. Alarms screeched as the ship's systems started glitching; lights flickered, and somewhere, he heard the tractor beam's ominous hum sputter out.

"That's for trapping us, you scaly bastard," he muttered, imagining Dundee's reaction. But his victory lap was short-lived. The door to the command center hissed open, revealing three more guards, rifles primed, and behind them, the looming silhouette of Dundee himself, his crocodile-like maw curled into a snarl.

"Well, kriff me sideways," Roark sighed, raising his hands as the guards closed in. "Guess I just upgraded from blaster clown to main course. Any chance we can talk this out over a drink?" His smirk didn't waver, even as the odds stacked against him, because if there was one thing Roark knew, it was how to bluff his way into deeper trouble.

Sorr Kortu Liin Terallo RedSword77 Brinna Dara Meri Vale