First Reply Caught Between the Moon and New Hope C̶i̶t̶y̶ Settlement

[0-7]

Caught Between the Moon and New Hope City Settlement
Space, In Orbit Above Ladarra, New Hope Settlement
Tags: Open

NK-Witell-class Freighter, 0A-155, Songbird (lightsaber), Vibrosword
​

Seven let out a groan as her vessel began to sputter. It had been limping on low fuel for a while now, not even having it in the tank to make any more hyperspace jumps. Now she was dead in the water, or in the void rather, just as she had gotten herself to the nearest local of Ladarra. For a moment, frustration took over her, and she slammed her hand against the steering of the ship. After a while, though, she stopped to take in the ambiance of where she was.

It was... quiet here. On one side of her window was the planet's moon, hanging further out in the orbit of the rust-desert world. On the other side she saw the specks of civilization in the dust, abandoned and left behind. It was comforting to be in this place, away from the world. It made it difficult for her to want to throw on her hazard beacon, especially considering she was close to the Mandalorian Empire being in the Gordian Reach. They had never been that easy to handle in her history of encounters with their creed, albeit always brief meetings. Why couldn't she just... sit here.

Enjoy the stars for a bit.

The universe was magical when it wasn't trying to kill you. She had never been allowed the freedom to simply look at the sky. It only had ever been the dead, empty void she had to pass through to get from one objective to the next. Now, no longer a slave bound to the ambitions of a Sith Master, she could stop and watch. It was breathtaking, in a way, that so much could be in a space so vast. Like a mathematical impossibility that matter became anything at all.

All of this pondering only filled Seven with a yearning. She wanted so desperately to be normal. Forget what she was. The life she had been forced to live to survive. Worse yet, the magic of the silence soured as she felt herself feeling... alone. She had jealously absorbed herself with the stories and activities of normal people ever since gaining her freedom. People didn't stargaze alone.

Reluctantly, after a moment of motionless observance, the Evereni flipped on her distress beacon. Anyone who picked up the message and followed would find her stranded between the Moon and New Hope Settlement.

 

[Neryn Ka]

Tags: 0-7 ​

"Sir, we're detecting a nearby distress beacon." Reported the bridge officer curtly.

If Neryn had eyes, he'd probably have rolled them in annoyance. Even as it was, he found himself reflexively attempting to do so. It was strange; he'd only had eyes for a few moments after his birth, but the reflexes for their use were still there. Just one more annoyance of his station, he supposed.

"Fascinating." Said Neryn, in a tone that suggested he found it anything but. "Set scan range, tell me what's doing it, and whether they're worth robbing or using as target practice." He leaned back in his chair, placed his leather-booted feet up on the pristine command console, and waited.

"Small freighter, sir. They're adrift." Came the report after a few moments. "An easy target. Lock weapons?"

For whatever else Neryn could say about the bridge droids, they were quick learners. He made for a poor pirate at the end of the day; watching ships be reduced to their constituent atoms had always brought him more joy than the physical plunder. Still, he had a job to do, supposedly.

Thankfully for the freighter's captain, Neryn was incurably lazy, disobedient, and uninterested in performing the duties of that job in any respect. The freighter was far too small to have anything worth stealing, and right now, he was feeling more curious than greedy.

The Sephi-Thing sighed wearily. "No." He decided after a moment. "The cost of the expended munitions would outweigh the brief milliseconds of joy I'd get from blowing it up, and I will not be lectured again for wasting resources. Hail them. We'll see what the problem is, and then decide if blowing them up anyway is worth that lecture."

Neryn tapped a series of buttons on his command throne, cleared his throat, and spoke in the closest thing to a nonthreatening tone that he could manage.

"Attention freighter. This is Aconite-Class Carrier-Corvette 'Sleep of Reason'. We've received your distress call. What seems to be the trouble, over?"

Ending the transmission there, he turned to the bridge crew. There were few of them, potentially fewer crewmen than the unknown freighter held. Much of the corvette's functions were automated by a central droid brain, a very handy feature for ranging the Outer Rim. "Chances of this being a derelict, one that's been abandoned for some time?"

"62.45%, sir. This is a relatively remote region." Came the response from a flickering holodroid. "Fine. Still, never let it be said that I'm a complete savage. If there's no response, we'll ignore it and be on our way. If there is, well, maybe I'll do my good deed for the millennium."

 

[0-7]

Ladarra
Tags: Neryn Ka

NK-Witell-class Freighter, 0A-155, Songbird (lightsaber), Vibrosword
​

To Seven's dismay, there was a vessel that appeared quickly, and large enough to cast a shadow over her vessel. It was a gnarly looking ship, the kind you'd assume were the sort a pirate would roll around in. That wasn't a particularly welcoming sign. Then she was hailed by the vessel.

"Attention freighter. This is Aconite-Class Carrier-Corvette 'Sleep of Reason'. We've received your distress call. What seems to be the trouble, over?"

Well, they weren't shooting yet. The Evereni sighed before she opened her line.

"Just out of fuel. Was looking to land but I didn't quite make it into the atmosphere. All I need is a shove, the momentum and reserve propulsion will get me to the surface just fine..."

She didn't want to risk any kind of fuel exchange given she hardly had any space equipment. Her rebreather wouldn't do her much good for long-term exposure, and she didn't want to have to be dependent on strangers to do it. It was safer this way. Less risk.

Now she was sort of missing the peace and quiet.

 

[Neryn Ka]

Tags: 0-7 ​

The stranger's reply wasn't long in coming. Curt, withdrawn, and if Neryn was any judge, carrying a slight undercurrent of trepidation. Probably wise. Not too many came out this way, if the information that now streamed across his command data-panel was accurate.

Something about the voice sparked an ember of recognition in his mind. Familiar, but only distantly. Part of him wanted to ask. Another part, the oft-neglected portion of his brain that controlled duty and responsibility, reminded him that it was none of his business, and that he was out here for a reason. Prone to dereliction of duty he was, but he feared the wrath of his superiors immensely.

The mere idea of that wrath being turned his way prompted a shudder, and Neryn clenched the arms of his chair more tightly. The heat conducted by his sudden surge of instinctive fear blackened the metal of the chair's armrests, leaving a singed handprint on each.

"We copy, freighter." He replied carefully, apathy slowly giving way to some trepidation of his own. Neryn usually only associated with a scant few people, and it bothered him that he was failing to remember the voice's source. Then again, he had been broadening his horizons a bit lately.

He'd encountered hundreds of new people in the last few weeks, so it wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility that this could be one of them.

The creature muted the link for a moment, then turned to the helmsman. "Take us in closer."

"Nothing to worry about, we'll get you where you need to go." The winged spawn continued cheerfully, resuming the transmission. For once, he meant it. Closer inspection only reinforced his earlier conclusion: the freighter probably couldn't contain enough cargo to justify a grab. That was another loss for greed, and another win for curiosity.

It was maybe a third the length of his little raider, a personal transport by all appearances. Still, he knew appearances didn't mean much in the Outer Rim. Anybody that would come alone to a place like this was probably prepared for trouble.

"I don't have tractor beams on this thing, so if I were you, I'd lock down anything breakable on your hull. We can ferry you in-atmosphere if you like, or just give you a head start like you asked, but either way, it's likely to be a bumpy ride, freighter."

As if to illustrate the point, two-dozen starship-scale manipulator tendrils emerged from ports along the raider's hull. Primarily intended to latch the raider onto larger vessels, non-lethal transport wasn't exactly their stated purpose. Still, Neryn remained confident that it would (probably) work.

He tried not to think about the report that he'd have to write later, explaining this sudden detour. He also tried not to think about why he'd probably be returning empty-handed, and sighed.

That sound was full of a healthy dose of existential misery, exhaustion, and just plain old dread. Thus was the lot of a servant, created for purpose. His opinions seldom had anything to do with what did or did not happen.

Neryn was not generally a kind, altruistic, or even entirely sane creature. Those were features that his maker had chosen not to include in his psyche, and the closest he ever got was a sort of dim identification with other ruined and broken things. There wasn't much point in robbing the freighter, or blowing it up as his first instincts had demanded. Leaving it here also wasn't an option, or he'd pass up that slim chance to learn who he was speaking to. So, Neryn did the only thing he could.

"I'm ready when you are, but you might want to strap in."

 

[0-7]

Ladarra
Tags: Neryn Ka

NK-Witell-class Freighter, 0A-155, Songbird (lightsaber), Vibrosword
​

"I don't have tractor beams on this thing, so if I were you, I'd lock down anything breakable on your hull. We can ferry you in-atmosphere if you like, or just give you a head start like you asked, but either way, it's likely to be a bumpy ride, freighter."

"...I wouldn't mind being ferried into atmosphere," she relented with a sigh. "Don't have much to break, so no need to wait on me..."

Her vessel jostled as a series of grappling arms took hold of it, and she took that as her queue to put on a seat belt. This wasn't exactly how she had expected her day to go, but her luck wasn't exactly that great. This may as well happen. Still, the voice on the other end, she vaguely knew it. From where she didn't remember. She had been lots of places after all.

Hopefully it wasn't anyone she had kicked in the teeth of.

"I'm ready," the Evereni answered back.

And she prepared herself for the impending uncomfortable experience.

 

[Neryn Ka]

Tags: 0-7 ​

"...I wouldn't mind being ferried into atmosphere," she relented with a sigh. "Don't have much to break, so no need to wait on me..."

"Copy that, freighter. Just sit back and enjoy the ride." Came the response, delivered with a relaxed confidence that Neryn didn't exactly feel.

He rubbed the pale, almost translucent skin of his forehead with two fingers, trying his best to remember and coming up blank. No sense in it. It would either return, or it wouldn't. Memories weren't something one could just chase like butterflies.

For its part, the Sleep of Reason was a blisteringly fast vessel. It wouldn't take them long to get down there, under ideal circumstances.

Little did the stranger know it, but Neryn's thoughts were exactly mirroring the "this wasn't how I'd expected today would go" sentiment. He'd come out here with the intent of reconnoitering shipping lines in the area, maybe taking a little light plunder, and returning with something to show for the journey. Performing a rescue out of the nonexistent goodness of his heart was not on the agenda, yet here he was anyway, chugging through valuable time and starship fuel to do it.

At some point, he'd need to conjure a suitably-outlandish lie about what he'd been doing here, and somehow convince the droid crewmen to back it up. Unfortunately, they were loyal to his superiors, not him, and obeyed his commands only insofar as the mission dictated it. He could already feel their beady little photoreceptors boring into the back of his head.

If nothing else, he owed the stranger one minor debt of gratitude; this little rescue had exposed a serious flaw in the nature of his operations going forward. He would need to secure his own ship, his own crew, and other assets of his own, rather than relying on those of the Dzara.

Those assets were all well and good to draw upon, but they were also instruments of control. He'd never be able to get anything done with disloyal hands running every station. He wrinkled his nose at the thought. Neryn was a thing of chaos, like a living wildfire, and resented any restraint upon his maraudings with the utmost intensity.

"You have a name besides 'freighter'?" He asked after a moment or two, orienting the ship for descent to planetary atmosphere. "Don't have to answer that, of course. I can't say I'd want to be very forthcoming, were our places reversed."