Private Edge of the Abyss

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He gave her a look and nod of his head. "More or less." He wasn't making it a terrible thing though as the blade spun in his hand into a reverse grip with a nod. "On it." He said it while moving and Seastone was looking at the boat as she spoke. "I got this, now where is the instruction manual?" She said it while she was looking over the boat along the hull with the storm. "Oh who am I kidding, I never read it like those terms of service." There was a laugh from the twi'lek to match the wind as Aya was holding her head with the wife before they were moving to get behind Ana and cover herr slicing. Mistral looking around more when he held his knife but there wasn't anything yet.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana didn't look up from the exposed access panel when Seastone started talking.

Her hands were already moving through the system architecture with practiced speed, fingers slipping between wet wiring and half-protected circuitry while rainwater dripped from her sleeves onto the casing below. The boat's systems were old, patched unevenly in places, and running on the kind of maintenance philosophy that relied heavily on hope.

"That explains a surprising amount," she muttered dryly as Seastone mentioned never reading manuals.

A spark jumped from the panel as Ana bridged another connection, the console flickering weakly before stabilizing into a dim amber glow. She immediately leaned closer, scanning through the startup cascade while Aya and the others shifted into position behind her.

"Power grid's intact," she said, more focused now, her voice settling into the calmer cadence she always seemed to find around machinery. "Fuel lines too. They shut it down properly before the storm hit."

Her fingers moved again, forcing a bypass through what looked suspiciously like a security lockout.

"Which means whoever owns this expected to come back to it."

That part she didn't love.

Another series of inputs followed, quick and precise despite the rain and the tension pressing down around them. Somewhere behind her, the storm cracked again, lightning illuminating the cove in brief flashes of cold white.

Then the boat answered.

A low vibration rolled through the hull beneath them as dormant systems woke one by one, lights flickering dimly to life along the deck.

Ana exhaled quietly.

"There we go," she said, the closest thing to satisfaction entering her voice all night. "Engines are responding."

She finally glanced back toward the others, rainwater still dripping from the edge of her jaw while the vessel hummed beneath her hands.

"If anything else decides to attack us," she added calmly, "I'd appreciate it waiting until we're no longer attached to the dock."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral motioned for them to get on and Seastone was moving as she went to the controls. "Hello beautiful. we're going to have some fun... or we are going to explode cause there is some antitheft security explosive on you. I would totally do that... tied to a depth counter so that it would be out of the way and they wouldn't realize it." She said it and Mistral looked up and over as he was securing the two women that they had. The one still catatonic and the other in a state of shock. "Ah lets just... lets figure that part out after we get away. Preferably somewhere dry or not raining." He said it but the twi'lek was nodding. "Alight." She said it and was kicking them off from the dock with a look over at some of the others. "We got this, the only thing left now is to survive the storm, the rocks, the hyperthermia from all the rain, possibly foreign parasites and trench foot from all the water and infection from any wounds but we got this."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana climbed aboard with considerably less enthusiasm than everyone else seemed to possess.

The moment her boots hit the deck, she crouched near the exposed access housing again, one hand still resting against the panel as if she trusted the systems more than the ocean currently trying to kill them. The boat's engines vibrated beneath her through the metal plating, rough but functional, and for the first time in what felt like hours, the situation resembled something she could actually influence.

Then Seastone mentioned explosive anti-theft countermeasures.

Ana closed her eyes for one brief second.

"Please don't speculate about hidden explosives while I'm still connected to the startup system," she said flatly, rainwater dripping steadily from her sleeves onto the deck.

She leaned back into the panel immediately afterward anyway, because now she absolutely had to check.

Her fingers moved quickly through the system readouts as the boat pushed away from the dock, scanning for anything tied to pressure thresholds, unauthorized departure triggers, ballast inconsistencies, or depth-linked failsafes. The fact that Seastone's idea was ridiculous did not make it impossible.

"Also," she added while working, "trench foot is statistically unlikely this soon."

A small pause followed as another wave slammed against the hull hard enough to rock the vessel beneath them.

"The explosion concern is unfortunately more realistic."

She glanced briefly toward Mistral and the injured women, then toward the black water surrounding them before returning her attention to the diagnostics.

"No immediate detonation signatures," she reported after a few tense seconds. "Which is either encouraging or exactly what someone designing a good trap would want me to think."

That did not sound encouraging.

Ana exhaled slowly through her nose and braced herself against the console as another swell rolled beneath them.

"For now," she said, her tone dry despite the exhaustion pulling at it, "I'm choosing optimism and assuming we won't explode before sunrise."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral gave Ana a nod of his head with that. he was moving quickly as he allowed Seastone to start getting them out of there and he gave a nod of his head. "I am in agreement with you in this partner." He said it and looked at her offering an arm to help her up as Seastone was taking them towards it. "Alright you land lovers... second star on the right." She was pointing towards the storm and where there was a small break in it. THe skies were slightly more clear and showing the night sky. "Then straight on till morning or until she crash and explode." She said it but was going as Aya motioned with them securing the two and going to their positions. She was finding the best place to call it out and the shark woman was moving to check for debris or problems in the water itself.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana accepted the offered arm after only the briefest hesitation, less out of delicacy and more because the deck beneath her feet had already made its opinion on stability abundantly clear. She pulled herself upright carefully as the boat cut through the rough water, one hand immediately catching the nearby railing when another swell rolled beneath them.

Seastone's declaration earned a long look from Ana, somewhere between disbelief and exhausted resignation.

"You realize," she said dryly over the wind and rain, "that the story you're referencing ends with children never growing up."

Her gaze shifted briefly toward the break in the storm, the narrow stretch of clearer sky that somehow looked impossibly distant despite being directly ahead of them.

"Given tonight," she continued, pushing wet hair back from her face, "I'm beginning to understand the appeal."

There was a faint softness beneath the words, worn down by exhaustion more than sentiment, before her attention drifted back across the deck. Aya organizing positions. The shark woman scanning the waterline. Mistral was still somehow upright after everything that had happened.

A collection of people who should not have worked together nearly as well as they apparently did.

"Though I'd personally settle for surviving long enough to complain about this somewhere dry," she added, the dry edge returning to her voice as she steadied herself against another hard shift of the hull.

Her eyes flicked once toward the dark water surrounding them.

"And preferably somewhere not actively trying to drown us."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Mistral was looking at her and he chuckled. "Someplace not trying to drown us might be the best thing I have heard... though dry will be good enough for me and warm." He said it but was not out of the dangerous situation enough to rest yet. His instincts were mostly using there to keep him steady on the deck as Aya was calling out directions and hazards coming at them. Seastone driving them quickly and she gunned it. They were going faster and faster as the wookiee roared but looking back Mistral was able to see the fortress. "Well good news nothing is chasing us. So I'll consider that a win for now and look on the brightside. We should hopefully able to get back."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana kept one hand wrapped around the railing as the boat surged forward through the storm, her balance adjusting in small, automatic corrections every time the hull slammed against another wave. The wind cut through her soaked clothes hard enough now that exhaustion was beginning to settle into her bones beneath the adrenaline.

Still, when Mistral pointed out that nothing was chasing them, she finally allowed herself to look back.

The fortress sat distant against the lightning now, half-obscured by rain and darkness, no visible pursuit cutting through the water behind them. No creatures. No boats. No floodlights sweeping the sea.

For the first time all night, the absence of something felt real.

"I'll accept 'not actively hunted' as progress," she said dryly, though there was less tension in her voice than before.

Her gaze lingered on the island for another second before turning forward again toward the narrow break in the storm Seastone was steering them toward.

"And if we make it somewhere warm and structurally stable," she continued, "I fully intend to forget at least half of tonight happened."

A small pause followed as another wave rocked the boat hard enough to make her tighten her grip again.

"Probably the climbing portion."

There was the faintest trace of weary amusement in it now, something softer beneath the exhaustion as she glanced briefly toward Mistral.

"Though I will admit," she added, quieter this time, "your terrible plans did keep working."

Not praise exactly. But close enough.

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He shrugged. "My terrible plans are mostly luck... and a lot of refusal to die despite the galaxy seemingly having a vendetta against me." He said it with a look though as Seastone was still going and she spoke. "I fear not the weather, I fear not the sea." She trailed off as a sea shanty from the twi'lek was not something he was certain he needed but he stood there with a look. "Though it was kind of nice to know I still have some skills... no weapons left except one knife but I maintained it until the end and it all helped us." He said it while looking and the wookiee roared. "Yes and you helped, I am trying to look impressive here and all. We still got to finish the job and return the wife and hopefully get some form of better medical care for the other woman.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana leaned one shoulder lightly against the railing as the vessel cut through the rough water, the sharp salt air and lingering storm winds whipping strands of damp hair across her face. Despite the exhaustion weighing on her muscles, there was a steadiness returning now that they were no longer trapped beneath collapsing stone and rising water.

At Mistral's comment about terrible plans surviving through sheer refusal to die, the corner of her mouth twitched upward.

"That explains far more about this entire situation than I would like," she replied dryly.

The Twi'lek's sea shanty earned a brief glance and an almost disbelieving breath of amusement from Ana before her attention shifted back toward Mistral. The casual way he spoke about fighting through all of that with a single knife somehow made the whole thing sound even more absurd in retrospect.

"You know," she said, folding her arms loosely as she looked him over again, "most people stop trying to look impressive after nearly drowning."

There was warmth behind the remark, though, the kind born from shared survival rather than mockery.

Her gaze flicked briefly toward the others aboard the craft, lingering a moment on the injured woman before returning to him.

"For what it's worth, I think you already succeeded."

The admission came more quietly.

Then she exhaled softly and straightened from the railing, grounding herself again in the practical reality ahead of them.

"But you're right," she continued, her tone settling into something steadier. "We finish the job. We get everyone home alive. Then maybe we can all make significantly less catastrophic decisions for a while."

A faint pause followed before she glanced sideways at him again.

"Though somehow I doubt that part will last long."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

He looked at her and gave a small nod of his head. "Thank you." He tried to laugh but he was standing there. "I am going to be sore come morning but it will be worth it. Cause the Lux is still on the clock." He was offering a small chuckle. "And I think we can bill for a new boat or at least a new sword something good to retire with." He said it and looked at there was a groan from the larger woman. Her eyes opening as she was still in shock with the one arm but the wookiee was holding her there. They had been able to get to a place in the water where the waves were smaller but the rain was still heavy and Mistral was looking with Aya there. "We got this... just take a moment and look for well anything. I don't know if they fully refueled this or had extra supplies on board it was the first and best chance we had."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana glanced toward the woman as she stirred, the sound of the groan cutting through the rain and engine noise enough to pull everyone's attention for a moment. Relief flickered briefly across her expression before it settled back into something calmer and more measured.

Alive was good. Alive meant problems could still be solved.

"If you retire after this," she said dryly while pushing herself away from the railing, "I think you've earned it."

There was a faint trace of fatigue-softened amusement in her voice now, worn thin by the storm and the long night but still there.

"Though based on tonight, I suspect you'd somehow find danger in retirement too."

She moved carefully across the deck as the boat rolled beneath them, one hand trailing along the wall for balance while she started checking compartments and storage lockers with the same practical focus she brought to everything else. Systems first. Resources second. Panic never.

The first hatch resisted before finally giving way under pressure, revealing emergency supplies shoved carelessly into place beneath a tarp.

"Good news," she called over the storm as she dug through it. "Whoever owned this believed in overpacking." Her hands moved through containers quickly, sorting by instinct. "Fuel reserves. Thermal blankets. Water purification kits." A beat. "…And enough emergency rations to convince me they expected to get stranded regularly."

She finally pulled one of the blankets free and carried it back toward the injured women, offering it toward Aya and the Wookiee without fanfare. "Get them warm first," she said quietly. "Shock gets worse when people stay cold."

Then she glanced back toward Mistral, rain still dripping steadily from both of them while the boat pushed deeper into the dark water. "And for the record," she added, "if this boat survives tonight, I'm voting we keep it." A small pause followed. "It already seems emotionally attached to poor decision-making."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Aya was looking at the boat and she spoke. "Maybe, though upgrading it is the key and most important part... also the open area for Seastone is not exactly the best." She said it but was looking at the supplies as Seastone was going over it. "But captain think of all the credits we'll be able to put into it. Imagine this boat but with torpedo launchers and jump jets. We can go over a wave, boost ourselves and fire a torpedo at a starfighter like a boss yo." She said it and was looking there for a moment as she moved and Mistral was finding a place that he would be able to. "Retirement and danger... thiss was supposed to be hat. Just relaxing, going after the easy jobs. Though if this gets rrecognition might have a lot more busienss."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana looked up slowly from where she had been reorganizing the supplies, her expression flattening with every additional word that came out of Seastone's mouth.

"You want to weaponize the storm boat," she said carefully, as though repeating it back might somehow make it sound less insane.

The Twi'lek's enthusiasm did not help.

Ana stared at her for another long second before looking toward Aya instead, as if silently checking whether this was a recurring condition.

"Jump jets," she repeated softly, rain tapping steadily against the hull around them. "On a boat."

A beat passed.

"I need everyone to understand that I am the only thing currently standing between this vessel and several extremely illegal modifications."

Despite the dryness, there was less resistance behind it now. Exhaustion had sanded the sharpest edges off her disbelief, leaving behind something dangerously close to reluctant acceptance.

She settled onto one of the secured storage benches nearby, finally allowing herself to sit now that the immediate threat of death had downgraded into merely probable. Her wet sleeves clung to her arms as she leaned back against the wall of the cabin and looked toward Mistral.

"Also," she added, "you do realize that every time someone says they're taking easy jobs, the universe immediately interprets it as a challenge."

There was a faint pull at the corner of her mouth now, subtle but real.

"At this point, if we survive long enough to reach shore, I'd recommend avoiding words like 'quiet,' 'simple,' and 'routine.'"

Her gaze drifted briefly toward the storm outside, then back to the strange collection of people currently sharing a stolen boat in the middle of the night after surviving something that absolutely should have gone worse.

"Though," she admitted after a moment, quieter now, "if this does become recognized work…"

A small pause.

"…I expect hazard pay."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Aya looked at Ana and spoke. "Yes and thank you though I'll tell you the story when we were traveling in the eastern islands. Trying to evade a pkye patrol, we went over a wave and fired a torpedo... that the pykes are terrible pilots and got that close to the water is less our providence then their own fault. What shouldn't have worked actually did and they sank quickly." She said it and had a look as Seastone spoke. "See it can be done, cause spice smugglers are dumb." She said it and the shark spoke as she was there next to the wookiee. "We smuggle spice." The twi'lek looked at her. "Yeah but we are awesome so it counters tit out. I just made up the math in my head right now."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana listened to the exchange in complete silence—not the thoughtful kind, but the stunned silence of someone whose brain was frantically trying, and failing, to establish a usable chain of logic. Her eyes moved slowly from Aya to Seastone, then to the shark woman, before finally settling on the storm outside as if the ocean itself might provide the clarification the group could not.

When it didn't, she finally spoke, her voice carrying the terrifying precision of someone barely holding onto her reason. "I need all of you to understand," she said, "that not one part of that conversation connected to the next in any structurally sound way."

She lifted one hand and began counting off points against her fingers. "First, you fired a torpedo at a starfighter from a boat. Second," she added, ticking off another finger, "it only worked because the pilot made a poor life decision. Then, somehow, we transitioned into spice smugglers being stupid," her gaze shifted pointedly toward the shark woman, "despite all of you apparently being spice smugglers yourself." After a brief, heavy pause, she lowered her hand slowly. "And the rebuttal to this blatant contradiction was simply that 'we are awesome.' That is not math."

The boat rocked beneath them as rain continued to hammer the hull, and Ana leaned back against the wall with the exhausted expression of someone realizing far too late that she had become attached to a group of profoundly dangerous idiots. "Disturbingly," she added after a moment, "the worst part is that your success rate suggests this actually works for you. Which means either all of you are incredibly lucky, or the galaxy itself has stopped enforcing consequences correctly."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

The twilek was looking at Ana as she listed it all off. "Ah but the pykes smuggle the spice and fly the ship so them making poor decisions totally makes sense and can you really quantify sense... like there isn't a sense to logic rratio like when doing fuel or alcohol or explosives. You just have to wing it... and then see where things go and if it goes bad make sure there are meat shields all around you." Seastone said it as she was looking at everyone and spoke. "Which is why I love hanging out with you guys." Mistral looked at her and then at Ana. "Did she just?" He held the railing but was looking at the storm while it shookk the boat less and less.

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana stared at Seastone through the cabin's dim, flickering light, the storm still rumbling in a low, rhythmic growl around them. There was a long, heavy pause. Not because Ana lacked a response, but because she was genuinely trying to determine if the Twi'lek had managed to develop an entirely new branch of physics, one completely unmoored from reality.

Beside her, Mistral spoke up, his voice colored by a concern that mirrored her own.

Ana closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a slow, measured breath before she finally looked up. "Yes," she said, her voice flat with a weary sort of finality. "Yes, she did."

Her gaze drifted back to Seastone, who remained looking entirely, bafflingly pleased with herself. "She just explained tactical survival through a mixture of alcohol ratios, explosive approximations, and the strategic deployment of meat shields." She paused, the absurdity of the sentence hanging in the salt-thick air. "And I think she truly believes it's a philosophy."

The boat rocked with a new, gentler cadence as the storm's violence began to ebb, the vessel pushing deeper into the dark, stabilizing waters farther from the island. Ana leaned back against the bulkhead, the adrenaline fading into a bone-deep fatigue that made it impossible to maintain her usual wall of disbelief.

"What concerns me most," she continued, her voice dropping to a quiet, contemplative murmur, "is that statistically speaking, she shouldn't still be breathing."

She shifted her eyes toward Mistral, her expression unreadable in the shadows. "Which leads me to believe one of two things is happening." She lifted a hand, gesturing vaguely toward the Twi'lek. "Either she is accidentally brilliant, or the universe is simply too afraid to correct her."

Mistral

 

[Mistral]

Ana Rix

Yeah... yeah he thought someone confirming what he had heard was what he had heard would help... it didn't. He looked back at the twi'lek who was happy with herself and almost practically seemed to be grinning where she was. Aya was holding her head and the groaning woman was still there as she was coming to. "Oh good someone normal." He said it hopefully... he needed something normal. "How are you doing?" He asked when he was looking at her and her one arm was there as she touched it where they had stopped the bleeding but she seemed groggy for the moment. "Fine considering, we were not expecting those things."

 

[Ana Rix]

Ana followed Mistral's hopeful glance toward the injured woman and immediately understood the desperation behind it. Someone normal. Unfortunately, after tonight, she was no longer entirely convinced any of them qualified. Still, when the woman answered coherently despite everything, Ana felt some of the tension in the boat ease by a fraction. Alive. Conscious. Oriented enough to respond. Those were acceptable metrics.

"That makes two groups tonight," she said quietly as she moved closer, crouching near the injured woman to check the improvised bandaging with more care than confidence. She wasn't a medic and had no intention of pretending otherwise, but even she could tell the bleeding had at least slowed.

Her gaze lifted briefly.

"Though in fairness," she added with dry understatement, "we also weren't expecting those things."

The storm outside had softened enough now that voices no longer needed to fight the wind, and the relative quiet made the exhaustion settling over everyone feel heavier somehow.

Ana adjusted the thermal blanket slightly around the woman's shoulders before leaning back against the nearby bench.

"You're probably concussed, in shock, missing an arm, and currently escaping a collapsing island fortress during a storm," she said matter-of-factly. "So if 'fine considering' is accurate, your standards are either admirable or deeply concerning."

A small pause followed before her eyes drifted toward Seastone again, who still looked entirely too pleased with herself.

"Though," she admitted quietly, "relative to the rest of this boat, you may actually be the closest thing we have to normal."

Mistral