Another credit, another day

[Ashelia Solidor]

For too long she had walked around the galaxy doing errands for her father and criminals. If there was any difference between them both. The Primarch had made her go to Korriban to fetch those damn terentateks and tuk’atas for InGen, and there was the Holocron, that dark holocron from Dathka Graush she had to get it for the Enclave in Kaikielius.

The pain she felt while learning magic with the witch Janick in Utapau, and the business with that small ‘sith’ acolyte in Felucia, while running from a bull rancor in a old Consortium compound. When she went to bed, she could still see those big blue eyes the boy had, and feel the sadness they carried, followed by the howls of the Vornskr in to the night.

“Hit me with another one.”, she asked the Ithorian bartender. Ashelia was in that planet, laying low after doing her job for Popara, the lorda of the Anjiliac, murdering a member of some local rival gang that was in her territory. The Solidor did not considered herself a murderer, but money was always handy, especially if she had any hopes of escaping.

There she was again, doing another dirty work for the glory of the Solidors and the Protectorate. She contacted a guy, someone she heard was pretty hand with those kind of situations she required for a job, a great slicer, well known in the underworld that ruled this galaxy.

 

[Arken Lussk]

He inhaled deeply, squeezing the form a little more tightly. Eyes closed, a half-smile spread across his lips.

"Master?" The robotic voice came from behind, obviously concerned for his actions. Arken heard Victor step even closer to him, placing a metal hand upon his shoulder gently. "Let go of her."

Eyes shot open, pushing himself away from whatever it was. His bewildered gaze found itself resting upon a young girl in a store. Judging from the way she was dressed, she was one of the service managers or representatives here - her face just as contorted in confusion as his was. Streaks of pink and red flooded her cheeks, and he felt his own heat up.

"Sorry about that," Arken rubbed the back of his neck, "You smell like someone close to me. I haven't seen them in a while... a long while."

Flustered, the customer service rep hastily made her retreat to the far reaches of the small store. Arken watched her go, longing for another nostalgic glimpse of the past. After a few moments, Victor's presence brought him back into reality.

"Yes, yes, I remember the meeting place. Just figured I'd stop here to see if they've got any merchandise I want before I go." He pursed his lips in thought, "Guess there wasn't anything."

"Query: Shall we make for the meeting now?"

"Lets. Lead the way."

Victor spun on his heels, opening the door for his charge to pass through before making a beeline towards the bar. A stereotypical meeting place would suit their needs well enough, the seedy help inside may play quite the role later on...

[member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"]

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

As she drank her sherry, Ashelia immediately regretted doing it so. Weak for alcohol she was, alongside probably half the population of Kaikielius and it always made her head feel numb and sleepy. ‘Probably the whole point of drinking…’, she thought to herself, barely paying any attention to the world around her in that bar.

A lawless place, chaotic cities and ruled by criminals. Like the Underlevels in Coruscant, while the big dogs and high executives fought on the surface of the planet to rebuild and grasp more control over the planet, while the spice gangs, technolords, crime bosses, kingpins fought the real battles in the lower areas.

The bartender nudge with a spoon against the table at the bar to call her out of her self contemplation about the galaxy. Slowly raising her head to look at the ithorian, Ashelia noticed he gesturing with his head about something behind her that needed her attention, one that she thanked by nodding at his direction, while slowly turning in her chair to gaze upon a young human with dark hair accompanied by a droid. In her eyes, the young human male looked nothing more than a baby.

Sitting with her legs crossed and violet eyes set on both newcomers, the elzeri female waited for them to approach her. While her other hand gently caressed the metallic surface of her lightsaber, a gesture commonly understood as for anxiety.

[member="Arken Lussk"]

 

[Arken Lussk]

He felt good. Today was a good day, Victor had even remarked that the pallidness of his flesh had disappeared during the night. Overworked, stressed, and undeniable anxiety had crept into his life like an ex-girlfriend. For days Arken had been attempting to shake this foreboding sense of dread and nervousness and last night was his last moment with the uneasiness.

Victor's fingers closed around his shoulder, squeezing briefly. The man turned to see him with a cup of caf in his other hand, despite being in a bar. Depressants wouldn't do him any good today, might as well go a dosage of its antonym. After a thoughtful swallow of the aromatic drink, Arken let his gaze sweep across the interior twice. As the second pass came around, they fell upon a snow-haired woman.

Her eyes had met his. A flicker of something... mirth, maybe?

A smile tugged at his lips, freeing a hand to run his fingers through messy hair. Then he made straight for the booth with haste in mind. Wordlessly, the man slid into the cushioned seat directly across from the woman. Victor slid in next to him promptly, unnervingly silent.

"Looking for someone?" Arken raised a brow, taking another sip of the caf.

[member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"]

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

The young human that came inside the shop looked at her for a moment, one fleeting moment was all it took for Ashelia to turn her gaze away. If she was right, he was the one she contacted to meet her in that pub, the slicer she heard about it from Queen Popara herself and when a Hutt gave someone advice on how to proceed with some outlaw, one should be smart enough to listen what they had to say. Her father gave her a lot of files to choose a place for her next job, she could either go to a bug planet and steal information about the famous Spaarti Creations, which meant to bust in a building with maximum security made by alien insects that changed color. Or she could use her skills in Coruscant to rob a bank and those were her good days.

And not just any bank, but the Corusca Bank. The greatest institution in the planet ever since he was sacked and bombarded by the Sith and other major powers in the galaxy, a old institution that had all their accounts data in one huge computer in a vault on the deepest part of the building. The kind of job that she had to be really careful, otherwise she would find herself with half the police and crime lords in Coruscant chasing her forever, or worse, with a bounty for her head and that was the only problem with Coruscant. No law to run from in those business, just a lot of anarchy ruled by kingpins making a lot of money and she knew how to work with them, or at least thought she did.

“As a matter of fact, human…”, she said in a slow tone of voice, eyes facing the bar and watching his move through the mirror at the wall. “I am.”, raising her drink from the table, Ashelia waited for a moment before siping the damn poison they served in Coruscant and called rum, gently her other hand in the other side of her side slided to her waist, next to her Model 434 blaster pistol. As a elzeri in planets like Nar Shadda and Coruscant, Ashelia had to be careful, they used a lot of pretty faces to draw girls to some warehouse before putting a leash on them before showing them the inside of a slavers ship. “How about you, mister…?”

[member="Arken Lussk"]