Even I Don't Know Where This is Going [Erys]

[Fabula Caromed]

Nar Shaddaa, the Hull Breach cantina

It was rare that someone wanted to be on Nar Shaddaa. It was even rarer that anyone would willingly be in a cantina called "the Hull Breach" to meet with an admitted black market weapon supplier without backup. Maybe Jatie was overconfident, or maybe she was just a fool. Either way, she slumped herself back in the chair of her booth and waited. There weren't a lot of places in the galaxy to get a sonic disruptor, and beggars couldn't be choosers. It wasn't like she couldn't defend herself.

Naturally, when her supplier showed up - some Aqualish woman with a flak jacket that looked like it had seen as much action as Jatie's old shuttle - she wasn't alone. A pair of gamorreans were cheap and effective muscle when you needed to rough someone up, or deter someone from roughing you up. Of course, considering Jatie herself had showed up with her dull red aliit'gam and packing enough heat to take on the local crime lord's thug barracks, she couldn't blame the poor fool for being nervous. Jatie's T-visor Mandalorian helmet resting casually on the table was both her bargaining chip and an open challenge, and against most other species, it probably would've soured the whole deal.

But not an Aqualish.

"Su cuy'gar, Gorue Dakak," Jatie began with a smirk, resting her chin on steepled fingers and her elbows on the table. "You brought a lot of cannon fodder along. If I were a less forgiving woman, I'd assume that meant you were doubling back on our deal." Once again, the Mando'a was quite ironically part of Aqualish ceremony. Jatie wouldn't dare have met her contact in less than full armor, and wouldn't dare let the other woman forget the implication of the word "Mandalorian." Constant aggression reinforced the idea of strength; Aqualish did not forgive weakness.

"Maybe they're here to watch me beat you senseless and take your credits, Jatie Graad," the rugged outlaw replied as she pulled up a chair backwards to sit at the table. "I'm sure that pretty little tin can of yours would look great on my wall."

Jatie just chuckled back. "Gar serim! Especially if you managed to take it witout losing a few fingers." Sitting up properly, the youngest Graad cracked her knuckles. "But that's not a likely outcome, now is it? It's more likely that I'd blast your mercs into cinders before breaking both of your knees and leaving you to the noble gentlemen in this osik'palon."

Gorue chortled, a sound that was suspiciously similar to a dog barking underwater, and leaned her head down on the back of her chair. Which was the front of her chair. Yeah. "Well then. I guess we're ready to do business."

Leaning closer to match, Jatie's grin just wouldn't quit getting darker. "I guess we are."
@[member="Erys Ephemeris"]

 

[Erys Ephemeris]

Ah, good old Nar Shaddaa. The place was practically brimming with jobs for an independent mercenary like Erys, even if the pay wasn't always the best. Then again, Erys didn't really care one way or another about the pay, so long as the job was interesting. If she wound up with a financial loss after a job, whether it be nursing injuries, replacing gear, or... compensating families who had lost sons, daughters, fathers, or mothers to collateral damage, paying for the difference would be simple with all she had inherited from her adoptive family.

The Hull Breach had been the cantina that Erys had frequented the most since she had gone independent a month back, both for the nice variety of jobs posted on the request board... And the more-than-frequent bar fights that had a tendency to break out. The place was like a baradium keg in the middle of a firefight; The question wasn't a matter of if there would be a bar fight, but really more of "how many today". Erys had been pulled into a couple of them in the past, but generally, she preferred to just sit back and watch everyone blow holes in each other. Honestly, if they served popcorn, Erys would probably buy a bucket every time she was there for a barfight to snack on as she watched the baradium keg go off again.

Right now though, save for some of the tension over near the Mandalorian and that Aqualish with the Gamorrean muscle, the place seemed pretty calm. Erys opted to head over to the bar where she could check the request board. Looked like most of the more interesting jobs were already taken, with most of what was left being package-running and babysitting spoiled rich kids. There was a couple interesting bounties, but most of them were on people hadn't seen in a while- Chances were they were either already dead or so deep in hiding that no one was gonna find them any time soon, anyways. Oh well, chances were there'd be something nice up tomorrow.

Not too long after Erys sat down, the bartender came over, holding an empty glass in one hand- A flute glass, in fact. Seemed the Bartender was starting to remember Erys as a regular already. "Looking for another job, huh?" The Bartender asked Erys, running a drying cloth along the glass's rim. "Heard you were running an enforcer job for the Hutts last. You already finished that?"

Erys smiled as she gave her simple, one word version of the answer: "Yes." The truth was, the job had actually gotten a bit messy- A small-time businessman on Nal Hutta had been refusing to pay his protection money to the Hutts as promised, because he was trying to pay for his wife's cancer treatment. Most others probably would have either took pity on the poor bastard or just beat him black and blue until he'd say he'd pay up; Erys instead opted to just shoot the ill, bedridden wife in the head with a rather large-bore slugthrower and promised to come after the man's children if he didn't start paying up. The Hutts were admittedly not happy about the dead body involved at first, but didn't care enough to cut Erys's pay or anything since the man started paying the credits he owed for protection later that day.

The Bartender cocked an eyebrow at Erys's vaguely short answer; He knew the kind of job she took up, since it was posted on his board and everything. Instead of digging any deeper, though, he just moved on in the conversation. "Well, sorry about the selection on the board. You just missed a couple of hit-jobs, actually. and even a corporate sabotage gig."

Right. This was Black Sun territory. Hit-jobs weren't just legal, they were a pretty big chunk of mercenary work around here. Erys should actually try one of them next time one was available; She didn't exactly have to be as nice with them as when she slotted folks during other jobs. "Thanks, I'll remember to swing by tomorrow then, too. Maybe there'll be a new one up by then."

"Hit-jobs aren't that commo- Okay, yeah, I guess they are here."

Erys sighed, contemplating just leaving now. On one hand she could probably head elsewhere with a better job selection than the Hull Breach had today, but if she missed out on a barfight while a Mando was around, she'd be kicking herself for weeks. "So, how about my drink, then?"

"Same as usual?"

"Are nerf herders scruffy?"

The bartender shot Erys a glare in response to her comment, before setting the glass he was holding down in front of her on the bar. "One Kir Royale, coming up," he said, turning around to grab a bottle of blackcurrant liqueur and white champaigne off the shelf. Up until now, Erys hadn't actually given the bar surface itself another look, but with the glass resting on its surface now, Erys noticed it wasn't the same material anymore; The bar had been armored since she was last there.

"Say, what happened to the old alumabronze bartop," Erys asked as the Bartender began pouring her drink. "You have it replaced for some reason?"

"Yeah, a couple nights back one of the barfights turned into a firefight, and some Sithkriffer with a flechette launcher blew a chunk out of the bar. Took the leg off a bus boy in the process, too. Decided to get the whole thing armored after that."

"Oh? What with?"

The bartender knocked a couple times on the bartop as he answered, before putting the corks back in the bottles to be put away again. "Matrix Armor, the ship-grade stuff. Supposed to be a hell of a lot stronger than Durasteel, which is great with all the heavy weapons people around here lug about."

Erys cocked an eyebrow at the news, especially when she remembered the cost of Matrix Armor. "How the feth did you afford that?"

"You think I can't take the jobs posted on my own request board?"

@[member="Jatie Graad"]

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Without verbally counting to three, both parties plopped their cases up on the table and slid them across in near unison. It wasn't perfect, but suppliers tended to get jumpy when things didn't progress in a very specific manner. Jatie opened her case and couldn't help but stare with a grin; one Black Sun manufacture sonic disruptor shotgun, genuine and in good quality. That would set her ahead a few months on the gear she'd been working on. Unfortunately, it was disassembled, but that would be a relatively simple problem to fix when she had a few minutes and a workbench. All that mattered was that she had the parts now, so she could properly reverse-engineer it.

Her half of the transaction, a case with two equally-genuine Ripper Mk II's she'd lifted from the Aliit'Graad armories, was just as useless. She hadn't included ammunition, and the instructions for assembly were on the inside of the case and beneath the padding. There'd be no way those things would be turned on her any time soon, and she didn't include the "family recipe" for how to tech them up. Unless someone was as good as she was at this sort of stuff, there'd be no worries of her being shot by her own guns any time soon. Gorue nodded and closed her case then leaned against her chair again. "Good to see you're still reliable."

Jatie smirked and shook her head. Gorue wasn't leaving. Her Gamorreans weren't making any move to back up, either, and she hadn't handed the case to them. "Oh no you don't. Meh gar kyrayc, shuk bah ni. Stand up and walk away before I start reconsidering that generosity." Things were turning sour for her, and fast. Jatie wasn't worried about personal danger. All she was worried about was losing a supplier. "You've got your goods, I've got mine. We're both happy. Take your di'kute and get the hell out of here, and you get to keep your arm."

The Aqualish stared for a second, then looked up at her grunts and gave a quick snort, angling her head towards Jatie. "You're too sharp for your own good, Graad. You could've walked away alive if you'd-"

The Gamorreans started moving towards Jatie, and within the space of a heartbeat her gun was clear of its holster. A Ripper, just like the ones she had passed to Gorue, only very assembled, very armed, and very loud. The name "Ripper" almost seemed named for the sound of the gun firing rather than its effect when she squeezed the trigger and put one screaming green-glowing slug through the chest of the pig-man on her left. The round passed right through his body and impacted deep into the opposite wall, and he flew bodily backwards without even twitching.

In the same movement, Jatie, brought up her Vornskr scattergun in her right hand, and once again the air was torn. This time it sounded more like an explosion as the sheer force of the chemical explosives in the back of the scatter gun cracked the air...and the pellets subsequently cracked the remaining Gamorrean. This one squealed, loudly, as he fell back onto his wide rear and panted for air that didn't seem to want to travel through his punctured lungs. With both of her weapons discharged, Jatie stood up and dropped her shotgun to the table, her eyes narrowing on Gorue...

...Who was already on her way to the door with Jatie's . Glaring half in irritation and half in focus, the young warrior brought up her Ripper into a proper two-handed grip and leveled it with an isosceles stance. She concentrated just for a moment before squeezing off one more shot. One more green round wailed through the air, tearing the atmosphere as it crashed through like a wild gundark. Fitting her earlier threat, the shot "clipped" the Aqualish in the right shoulder. Unfortunately, unlike a common slug or blaster bolt, that took her arm clean off. The arms (hurr hurr, pun) dealer fell to the bulkhead with a loud cry that sounded like a drowning bantha, and Jatie grinned brightly at her work. That wasn't a shot she thought she could pull off!

Safetying and holstering her Ripper, she stepped back a couple of feet to grab her shotgun, then made her way to Gorue, stopping only to empty another blast into that damn Gamorrean's chest to stop his annoying wheezing. As she neared, she bent down and grabbed the Aqualish woman's vest collar, yanking her into a position she could see at. "Jareor nari, burc'ya. I even gave you warning."

Gorue Dakak was unintelligible to Jatie; she didn't speak Aqualish, which was no-doubt what the mutilated woman was swearing in right now. "You blew a pretty important business opportunity right here," Jatie continued, shaking her head. "I would have let you and your goons go with your pay intact. You could have made a pretty credit, bought yourself something stinky, whatever." She placed the shotgun directly against Gorue's forehead, and her tone got colder. "But for some reason, you really thought that a couple of warthogs were going to magically make double-crossing me a good idea."

Continuing to bluster in sputtery, aquatic Aqualish for a few moments, eventually Gorue switched back to Basic. "Y-you don't understand...it was nothing personal! That was karking expensive, and I've got a-"

"A family to feed," Jatie sighed and shook her head. "That's a load of bas neral and you know it. You just wanted to recoup expenses." Standing up, she flipped the safety on her scattergun and dropped it back to her side. "But I'm not going to hold a grudge. You came through with what I needed. There's no reason to waste a good partnership with something as silly as a blood feud." She angled her eyes to the case, now several feet away, and leisurely moved to kick it back towards the prone woman. "Exactly what we agreed on, and nothing more. A Mandalorian's word is her bond."

As she walked back to her table, she flew an off-hand wave over her shoulder with her free hand. "Make sure to use some of what you make off of those to buy a new arm. I think I got your good side with that shot." And with her business taken care of, Jatie returned to her bench and checked her case, idly kicking one boot against a Gamorrean's corpse. Provided Gorue didn't die or hate her forever today had been a pretty good day.
@[member="Erys Ephemeris"]

 

[Erys Ephemeris]

Oh boy, was she glad she stuck around. There was indeed a firefight, as expected- As short as it was, it sure as chizk was entertaining. Erys had barely finished had a second sip of her Kir Royale before it was all over, too- And with a display like that, she doubted there would be another fight for a while, at least not while that Mandolorian was still here. Despite that, though, Erys could hear the bartender groaning behind her.

"Kriff a Gungan," the man muttered under his breath, "I just had those walls repaired this morning. This is why I wish people would just stick to blasters, it's a lot easier to fix damage left by those. Cheaper, too."

"You know," Erys started, taking a third sip of her drink before continuing, "You could probably make a decent amount selling holdout blasters at the door if you hate slugthrowers and scatterguns that much."

"I'll file that away with your popcorn suggestion from last time."

There was a pause in the conversation for a moment, as Erys took a few more sips from her drink and the bartender filled another customer's order, before Erys spoke up again. "Say, what do you think a Mando's response would be to someone buying them a drink?"

"That you wanna sleep with them?"

Erys shot the bartender a dirty look before taking another sip, refusing to even dignify that comment with a verbal response. "Really though, send her a Lager. I'll pay for it."

The bartender paused for a moment, then sighed and started filling up a glass with lager from the tap. "You got a message you want me to give her, too?"

"Let's see... 'Thanks for the entertainment.'"

"Sounds like something you tell a stripper," the Bartender cracked, before getting a rather wicked death glare from Erys. "Fine, fine, I'll make it 'Thanks, I enjoyed the firefight.' You're paying double for this lager though." The Bartender set the filled lager aside for a moment before grabbing a napkin and writing his version of Erys's message down on it.

A moment later, the Bartender handed the lager off to a waitress, handing her the note for the waitress to explain to the Mando who bought her the drink and why. As the waitress took the lager over to the Mandolorian, Erys finished off her Kir Royale, then turned to the Bartender, handing him the empty glass. "How about a refill?"

"How about you pay your tab first?"

Erys rolled her eyes, reaching into a pocket to pull out her credit card to hand to the bartender, who smiled and took the card, ringing up Erys's tab before starting to mix her another Kir Royale.
@[member="Jatie Graad"]

 

[Fabula Caromed]

'Alright, so the circuit link connects to the stereo cluster, which connects to the power supply through...' Jatie was entirely in her element as she fiddled with her brand new sonic shotgun, but assembling and disassembling it a few dozen times was still something that she needed to do to properly understand the kind of force she was dealing with. She couldn't settle for familiarity here; she had to have an intimate understanding of the weapon's body and systems, and combined with those sonic pistols she picked up on the Wheel, she might have enough to start working on her own designs pretty soon. Not for money or personal glory (though that would help), but for the honor of Aliit'Graad.

"Ahem..." Someone spoke up beside her.

Jatie didn't flinch much. Instead, she flipped the gun around so none the wires she was working on were touching the counter, then looked up with a raised eyebrow and an annoyed sneer. Her expression changed just a bit when she saw how cute her waitress was, melting into a smile. "And what can I do for you today, mesh'la?"

The woman who had brought her drink (probably as old as Jatie, so she couldn't really say "girl") looked relatively normal, but with some sort of blue spots along her high hairline. "From the woman at the bar, miss." Setting it down, she placed the beer on the napkin and backed up with a bow. Such manners! Hardly the sort of thing she would have expected from the Smuggler's Moon. Jatie probably could've got to the point of reading the message she'd been sent if she wasn't busy staring at her waitress' bum as she walked away.

Right. Messages. Booze. She really should be getting to that. Picking up the drink and slinging back a quick mouthful, she savored the flavor and the kick for just a moment before looking down to actually read the napkin. The fact that it would have been too late should the note have warned about a deadly poison in the drink she had just imbibed with gusto didn't quite occur to her. Reading over it was much more pleasant than that anyway. A woman after her own heart.

Jatie downed another long glug of lager before looking over to the albino at the bar and pantomiming firing a gun at her, complete with the "k-pow!" sound. After a moment to direct a leering little grin at the woman who had so kindly just supplied her with delicious fermented plant matter, she winked and went back to what she was doing, kicking out the chair across from her that Gorue had been sitting in just a few minutes earlier. Said chair was also sitting between two Gamorrean corpses, but anyone who was entertained by seeing those hogs get blasted probably didn't have a lot of problem with sitting among the bodies.

Pulling out her sonic shotgun innards again, she returned to work. 'Redundant power supply cables overjuice the wave emitters. That's what creates the disruptor effect. If I could remove that, it'd be suitable for mass-production and legal to use outside Mando space.'
@[member="Erys Ephemeris"]

 

[Erys Ephemeris]

Erys smiled when she saw the Mandalorian's response to her message; a playful hand gesture and a leering smirk were pretty good signs that the Mando appreciated the message and drink. When the Mando slid the chair out from under the table with a kick before returning to working on the sonic shotgun, Erys knew she had gotten on her good side... As, apparently, did the bartender.

With a whistle, the bartender handed Erys the Kir Royale she had ordered, as well as her credit card. "Congratulations," the man started as Erys took and pocketed her credit card, "You've managed to hook up with a Mandalorian. Try not to botch it, I've got enough cleaning up to deal with," The Bartender gestured over to the two Gamorrean corpses lying around the chair that the Mando had so nicely slid out for Erys.

"Yeah, don't worry too much about that," Erys said, taking her Kir Royale with her as she stood up from her bar stool and walking over to the table that the Mandalorian was sitting at. She set her drink down on the table before sitting in the seat that the Mando had kicked out for her, then wiped some of the Gamorrean blood that had splattered on the table from the Ripper fire away before clasping her gloved hands on the table in front of her.

"That was some fine shooting earlier," Erys started with a light smile, her eyes more focused on the Mandalorian's own eyes than the sonic shotgun she was working on. "Rather kind of you to let that Aqualish walk, too."
@[member="Jatie Graad"]

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Awww, smalltalk! It was so cute trying to find things to speak about with someone who you seemed interested in you explicitly due to your capacity for wanton violence. Jatie didn't look up from her work for the moment, instead fiddling with some bit of wiring inside the shotgun casing with one hand while her other reached down below the table to pull out her toolkit. "Pretty sure it was more luck that I actually got her in the arm. Hitting a running target isn't impossible, but clipping her limb instead of her spinal cord was more of a bonus than a goal."

All she pulled out was her hydrospanner, and she quickly put it to work messing with some of the internal settings. Sonic blasters, unlike Tibanna-based blasters, were largely electronic. She'd have to brush up on her programming, but it was hardly an impossible task. "Guns are just like any other kind of combat; the foundation for success is in the stance. Feet spread, proper grip. None of that one-handed duse that they do in the movies. Steady grip, steady feet. Helps level the pistol to make the shot easier."

Jatie clicked a few more little buttons, then twirled her hydrospanner around her fingers in a useless flourish display and quickly dropped it to the table. "Anyway, I didn't have any intent to kill her," the Mandalorian started, reaching for her lager instead. "She came through for me. I needed stuff, she got it. If she doesn't, like, want to kill me or something for blowing off her arm in self-defense? I'll probably do business with her again." Taking a sip of her beer, the girl grinned and leaned back, propping her boots up in the chair beside her new companion. "It's just good business sense."

First time she got a look at her. White hair, slight build. Probably Echani or Arkanian, but there were plenty of other humanoids that looked like albinos, so she couldn't assume. She hung out in a rough bar and seemed more interested in the violence than the music, so chances were she was a bit of a rough sort, herself. Swallowing a proper drink, Jatie set her tube back down and reached up one gauntlet to fluff out her hair. "Jatie Graad. To whom do I owe the pleasure?"
@[member="Erys Ephemeris"]

 

[Erys Ephemeris]

So dis-arming the arms dealer was more a fluke than intentional. Still, accidental or not, the Mandalorian had been quite impressive with how she had dealt with the dealer and her two guards so smoothly. As for what she had to say about guns, Erys knew from experience that what she said was true... When all you wanted was accuracy. Erys herself had practiced enough with one hand and been in enough live-fire situations where she could shoot plenty accurate enough one-handed, given it was a blaster or a relatively small-slugged slugthrower. But then again, Erys had practice using two blasters at once; She had the experience to be able to make that kind of shot one-handed, using either hand; She imagined that Ms. @[member="Jatie Graad"] didn't. Still, that was just a matter of different skillsets, and for all Erys knew, the recoil on those Mandalorian Rippers could be quite nasty. Besides, Erys doubted she could use a sonic shotgun one-handed like that either, even in close range, without some serious pain in the morning.

Erys did have an amount of respect for Jatie's willingness to deal with the Aqualish dealer again; Even with the dumb move of trying to attack the Mando in a bid to recoup her expenses, that dealer did still fulfill her end of the bargain. Erys remembered to make a mental note of Jatie's business sense for later. There was a good chance she might need it one day.

Sipping from her Kir Royale in one hand, Erys held out her dominant hand for a handshake when Jatie asked her who she was. "Erys Ephemeris. Mercenary, currently independent." Erys cracked a smile, still looking the Mandalorian directly in the eyes. Jatie likely would be able to tell from Erys's hand that she wasn't Arkanian since she had five fingers, and she certainly wasn't an offshoot since her face wasn't pale enough. "Admittedly, I've been looking for a business partner as of late. one who was in the same line of work, or at least interested in it."

 

[Fabula Caromed]

Ugh, handshakes. Too peaceful a greeting. Whatever happened to the tried and true practice of headbutting someone in greeting? Whatever. Jatie took [member="Erys Ephemeris"]' fingers in her gauntlet as if she was going to shake it, but then leaned forward and pulled it a bit closer instead, planting what could only be a chivalrous kiss upon milady's delicate hand. "A sincere pleasure to meet you. Erys is such a pretty name."

Focus, Jatie. She sat back with a grin on her face and returned to her beer, crossing one armored leg over the other thigh like she owned the place. "Mercenary work on Nar Shaddaa sounds a little dangerous. Takes a tough character to work muscle here for a few months and not get blasted and left in an alley." She lowered the tube just far enough to hide the majority of her face, giving her barely-visible grin a bit of an impish note. "But certainly that couldn't be you."

Her lager emptied, the Mandalorian lass set it nonchalantly to one side and leaned forward onto the table. "So. Was I just your entertainment for the evening, or did you have some sort of mission in your devious mind when you were possessed of the notion to come speak to me?" She drummed her armored fingers on the table, each one with a dull click that allowed her a decent impression of a rainstorm on a speeder chassis. "What's your angle, mesh'la?"

 

[Erys Ephemeris]

Erys hadn't exactly expected the kiss; regardless, she let the Mandalorian follow through kissing her hand, much as a knight would for their lady. Something about the action felt flattering to Erys. The compliment that followed was certainly appreciated, too.

Erys took a sip of her drink as [member="Jatie Graad"] continued, responding to Erys's offer. It was pretty obvious that the Mando was trying to get a rise out of Erys with that comment about tough characters. Most folks would have fallen for that kind of jabbing, too, but Erys instead cracked a devilish grin of her own. She actually liked it when people mistook her for weak; In some ways, it made it easier to play them like a tambour... Or to vape them when they least expect it. Either way, Erys was generally the one that came out on top.

As Jatie set the emptied lager aside and asked what Erys was trying to accomplish, Erys set her own half-emptied glass down on the table, slghtly off to the side, before leaning forward onto the table, propping herself up on her elbows with her palms under her chin. Even now, Erys had kept looking Jatie in the eyes, almost unblinkingly now. "Well, that's just it, isn't it? What I'm asking for isn't to work together for some one-off mission. And while the firefight was entertaining, I don't buy drinks for everyone who puts a hole in a couple of Gamorreans, either." For a moment, Erys's smile softened as she continued. "You see, what I'm interested in... is you."