Private Burc'ya vaal burk'yc, burc'ya veman.

[Tessa Thayne]

Tessa sat in the cockpit of the Relentless, her boots resting on the console as sheets of rain rolled over the view port, blurring Nar Shadda’s busy hangars from view, somewhere a radio was playing, the steady beat of background music made her foot bounce slightly as she thumbed her way through the holonet, eyes scanning new articles picking between the lines to try and find the truth of what was being reported, sipping a cup of caff.

Coruscant had fallen to the Covenant. The Sith Order had ambushed the High Republic at Mooja, skirmishes with the Imperial Confederation had broken out, not just with the republic but the Covenant. The galaxy was on the brink of a full scale war and it didn’t take a genius to figure that out, the question was where would it finally break? And what side would they fall on?

A chime sounded, making her drop her feet, sitting up and setting the datapad to one side her gaze flicked over the display. She’d tapped into Nar Shadda’s security channels as soon as they’d landed, it never hurt to have an ear to the ground. Especially in places where she knew corruption ran rampant.

[SECURITY ALERT: Firefight on Lower level 26.
Possible force wielder in play.
All nearby units respond.]​

“Shit.” She reached for the comms. “Adelle, should I be concerned that a security alert just went city wide for a force user causing trouble?”


Adelle Bastiel

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Tessa Thayne

What in Corellia’s Nine hells?

How in Corellia’s Nine hells?

Adelle extinguished the blade of her saber as the body fell and ran into an alley, cutting through city blocks and moving up and down levels. This was supposed to have been an easy task: meet with the information broker, haggle a bit, get the information, leave. She had arrived at the designated location. The broker had showed with a couple bodyguards. They talked and began negotiations. And then suddenly the broker and his guards were dead. Now she was running from well-trained, armed thugs. What in the fething hells was going on?

::Adelle, should I be concerned that a security alert just went city wide for a force user causing trouble?::

City-wide security alert. Osik.

She finished scaling the ladder up to the next rooftop, pulling out her comlink. This was the first time she actually missed wearing her buy’ce.

“In my defense,” she said a little breathlessly, dropping into a roll onto an adjacent ledge, “I didn’t start it and it was self-defense.”

A flash of phantom heat on her face made her flatten against the duracrete as a bolt lanced through the air where her head was just a second before. Kriff, she regretted opting for subtlety and anonymity instead of Mandalorian intimidation. Her beskar’gam would’ve been handy just about now.

“How fast can you get that ship ready to go?” she asked. “I’m trying to lose them but just in case.”

 

[Tessa Thayne]

The breathlessness was enough to make Tessa move, her hands moving over panels and consoles, bringing the ship to life, a wry grin on her face as the sound of a blaster bolt echoed behind Adelle's voice. She wasn't the leats bit concerned for Adelle's safety, not because she didn't care, but because she was Mandalorian and there wasn't a soul who existed in the depths of this osik'la city that had a hope in hell of taking her out.

"Why do I get the feeling that you are just a magnet for trouble?" she replied, the soft hum of the ships engines warming under her feet. "She'll be ready in five, I'll see if I can throw them off your scent."

She drained the rest of her caff, balancing the empty mug on the top of the console before cracking her fingers as pre-flight checks cycled on her screen she swiped them to one side and began typing, throwing false reports into the system pulling Nar Shadda's security in different directions, wiping her digital finger from the lines after each report. If they had a half decent slicer on their payroll then they would trace her withing a few minutes, but she only needed a few minutes.

"Don't worry about losing a tail, just get your sheb back here, Nar Shadda security forces are about as corrupt as they come, I have no issue killing them."

Adelle Bastiel

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Tessa Thayne

“If you think this is bad, you should see me in a bar.” Adelle dropped into a roll onto the main walkway, then tried to use the crowd to cover her tracks between herself and the security converging on her. “Actually, no you shouldn’t.”

At Tess’s order to forget security and just head for the ship, Adelle couldn’t help herself. “If you wanted my shebs that badly, all you had to do was ask. On my way.”

She pocketed the commlink and broke into a run again, now having to weave through people. While it did slow her down, hopefully it also meant that no one could take a shot at her. Which really meant nothing with corrupt security but there was a slim hope. Adelle flipped over a speeder bike that came out of an intersection and kept running, the driver yelling behind her.

A phantom fist connected with her head and she dipped into slide past the next alley under the arm that shot out. Adelle spared a glance at the Duros that stormed out after his failed attempt as she got her feet under her again. A human pushed himself off the wall as a Klatooinian joined him out of the crowd, vibroknives flashing in their hands. Kriff me. Adelle didn’t slow. As they swiped at her, she leapt over them and kept running.

After that, it took very little time to make her way back to the hangar the Relentless sat in, engines alive and ship waiting. Adelle sprinted up the ramp and only finally came to a stop at the top of it.

“We’re good! Kriff me, I do a lot of running for fun,” Adelle said, panting, “but even that was too much.”

 

[Tessa Thayne]

“Oh no, I definitely should.” She replied with a grin as the ship thrummed to life, the navicomp lighting up as she flung a message to port control to let them know she was leaving. They’d have an approved flight path out before Adelle got back, or Tessa would be flying out with an angry weequay screaming at her in huttese.

Either way they were leaving.

A laugh escaped her at Adelle’s next comment. “Cyar'ika, if I knew it was that easy, I would have asked sooner.”

The engines hummed beneath her, the echo of Adelle’s boots hitting the landing ramp was enough for her to take off, the landing ramping closing slowly as Adelle caught her breath. The comms exploded in a chatter of huttese, demanding she return to her docking bay and receive port security.

“Yeah, that’s not happening.” she muttered, reaching over to flick the comms of, silencing the following tirade of insults. “Port Control are pissed,” she called back, “You might want to get up here and strap in in case they decide to do something about it.”

She shifted power to the rear deflector shields, just in case, and angled the Relentless’s nose skywards, weaving her around incoming traffic with ease. The ship shuddered as a turret shot slammed into the deflector shields and Tess shook her head.

“So fething predictable.” she muttered, pushing the Relentless forward in a burst of speed as they cleared the skyline, breaking atmosphere. As the navicomp finished its calculations for their jump, checking sensors to make sure they weren’t being followed.

“So, who did you piss off?” she asked with a smirk as Adelle joined her.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Tessa Thayne

The decking shifted underneath Adelle’s feet as the ship lifted up into the air, ramp closing up behind her. She looked back over her shoulder but didn’t see the three thugs she had encountered on her run back. Good. And worrying. It was either an ambush of opportunity—and most criminals only considered easy marks, not someone already in a full-blown sprint—or it had been planned and they’d been ordered not to pursue. If they’d been ordered not to pursue, it meant their boss or whoever called the hit knew they’d get another chance later on.

It meant she was a known entity. Patterns, habits, routines, all of them liabilities now.

“Port Control are pissed,” she called back, “You might want to get up here and strap in in case they decide to do something about it.”

Adelle strode up to the cockpit at Tess’s call, air chilling her shirt even as droplets of hot sweat continued to run down her skin. She slumped into the copilot’s chair, bringing the safety belts over her shoulders.

“Are they ever happy?” Adelle asked sarcastically. This tracked from the few times she had to come here as a Jedi and with CorSec, although they were marginally politer with CorSec. Tess’s hands moved over the controls with a practiced deftness, already adjusting deflector shields, and pulled the Relentless into the air. The ship shuddered once, the sound of turret fire traveling through the corridors. Acceleration pushed her spine back into her chair as Tess rushed the freighter into orbit and angled for a jump into hyperspace.

“That’s the thing,” Adelle said, frowning at the viewport. “I don’t know.”

She hadn’t told Tess why she needed help getting to Nar Shaddaa in the first place: information brokering needed secrecy by necessity. The burner comlink she’d used to arrange everything had been encrypted, its location layered by several false frequencies, and then wiped clean before being destroyed. But op-sec was out the viewport now.

“I was meeting with an information broker,” she explained. “Kept everything quiet on my end—sorry about that. We met, we started negotiating, and the next thing I know, he and his two bodyguards are dead and I now have Narsh Security on my shebs.”

That was a problem she’d have to sort out before she continued the hunt for Krayt’s connections and potential employer. Later. That had been enough work for one day. Adelle unbuckled the harness and stretched out her spine.

“I do know one thing though.”

She flashed Tess a mischievous smirk. “Call me cyar’ika again and you can ask me for anything you want.”

 

[Tessa Thayne]

The navicomputer chimed and Tessa wasted no time activating the hyperdrive, the stars stretching into lines before giving way to the blue glow of hyperspace. They'd gotten away cleanly, a little too clean if Tessa was honest, she'd have to keep an ear to the ground see if anything rumbled along underground lines regarding a force user and a YT series. She very much doubted they'd heard the end of this.

"No need to apologise, if I had issue with no questions asked I wouldn't have brought you here in the first place." she slipped out of her own webbing a sly smirk playing across her lips as she rose, moving toward the cockpit door, her hand brushing Adelle's shoulder as she passed.

"Noted, I'll keep that one in my back pocket for later." she murmured as she went, heading down to the ships galley and flicking the caff pot to life.

"Do you want a hand digging into this? The underground is where I live and Crimson Dawn has connections I can make use of." She turned to lean on the side, the trickle of the caff pot filling behind her rapidly filling the ship with a rich aroma that said Tessa did not skimp on her caff of choice.

"I also understand if you want to keep whatever it is you're chasing close to your chest." she added with a smile.

Adelle Bastiel