Here Goes Nothing

[Nayru Wyndaru]

Metal Lord Territory​

​

Nayru couldn't sit still if her life depended on it, she sat in a crowded commuter ship on its way to a city ship in Metal Lord Territory. She tapped her foot and shifted from one side of her seat to the other, much to the annoyance of the elderly lady on her left. Once she arrived to the city ship she planned to intercept an outgoing Colicoid cargo ship, she still couldn't comprehend that she decided to do this. She was a princess for crying out loud, albeit an exiled one. Hence the need to steal a ship, she didn't have any credits to her name.

"Breath Nayru." She muttered under her breath. She wrung her hands as she looked around the commuter. It was packed with people of all sorts. Some of them started to look her way as she got more and more shifty in her seat. Nayru forced herself to sit still, she took a deep breath and pulled out her notebook from her satchel and reread her plan.

Step 1: Steal the ship.

Step 2: Fly the ship.

Step 3: Sell the stolen goods.

Step 4: Hide out on some space station for the rest of time.

She knew it was an awful plan, but she was desperate. The thing about Colicoid ships is that they are massive, built for practicality rather than style. If she were successful she would be set for multiple lifetimes, but she was only one person. A person without fighting or flying skills. Her inner panic was interrupted by a voice over the intercom saying, "Thirty minutes until we reach our destination."

​Nayru took another deep breath and went back to rereading her plans for the umpteenth time.

[member="HK-36"] [member="Merric Rhoso"] [member="Sesha Olan"] [member="Jovian Coopre"] [member="Maur"] [member="Maerae Irelia"] [member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Maur]

Eyes half-closed and arms folded over her chest, Maur tried to ignore the elderly woman's grumblings about another passenger. She could hear the "troublesome backwards nerf-herder", as the human female so eloquently put it, fidget in the shuttle's seat. Maur opened an eye a touch and gave a sidelong glance over the silver-haired snob at the person in question. Another human female, but slender, pale, and—since she was being brutally honest—quite fragile looking. A young thing, possibly on her first flight away from home. The young woman pulled out a—gods, was that a flimsi notepad? What backwater hole had bred this Alderaan lily and then let it go?

Maur looked around. No escorts or companions, by the look of it. No bodyguards. No one. She'd bet her left ear that the young human was out on her own for the first time.

The elderly woman harrumphed, clearly still annoyed at her other neighbor. Maur let a hiss of air slide through her teeth as she raised her lip in the merest snarl. The elderly woman turned her head sharply with snarl of her own on her face but whatever retort she had planned died on her lips as her face paled: a seven foot Torgorian snarling at you was nothing to sneeze at.

The distraction taken care of, Maur propped up her datapad as best she could and signed at the screen. An indie holonet app she downloaded captured the gestures, translating the Standard sign language into Basic. With a tap of her finger, Maur set the translation to play and passed the datapad over Mrs Harrumphing Elderly Lady to the young human.

:: Please excuse, :: a holo of a protocol droid said. :: You seem having distress. Can I assist? ::

| [member="Nayru Wyndaru"] |

 

[Jovian Coopre]

Jovian sat. Excited. He knew this was going to be quite the dangerous ride. His equipment had already been checked for the 5th time. Hand Cannons? Check. Ammo? Check. Computer charged? Check. Thermal Detonators? Check. Headset? Check. He was basically already ready. Pulling up a holotab of possible strategies on his wrist computer, he looked to his left. The Togorian wasn't speaking. She was was just making hand signs at a datapad. Then a holographic woman appeared on it. Then he understood. She couldn't speak. None of his business anyway. But the woman upfront. She was just upright scared. Shivering, movin' around, and she pulled out some prehistoric artifact that Coopre wouldn't use in his life. But none the less, he could tell this was her first time doing something bad. As long as she didn't screw up and get herself killed, she was fine. But she didn't look like it. And the rest of the people on the commuter ship didn't looked pleased to stare at her either.

Coopre decided to take a little bit of initiative and made a suggestion to the woman shaking in her boots. "Hey, ma'am. You should get some rest before we go, like seriously. I don't need you messin' up out there."

[member="Maur"] | [member="Nayru Wyndaru"]

 

[Maerae Irelia]

Even without her connection to the Force, Maerae could feel the anxiety coming off of the young woman with the notepad. It stemmed through the Force like a nervous energy; as if the girl were about to do something that she might come to regret later. The physical subtleties, however, were painted on her face, and in her uneven breathing. What did she have to fear? She wasn't the one packing a lightsaber under her robes.

No, no Maerae knew this wasn't some form of foolish jitters. As she had just felt through the Force, which swirled around her a bit darker than it did around the others, this girl was about to do something stupid. And as much as Maerae wanted to keep her head down, she knew that if this girl tried to attack someone, or hijack the transport, she'd be forced to intervene. That likely meant igniting her lightsaber, or using the Force publicly, both of which would out her as a Sith in Iron Empire territory. And the Iron Empire was not fond of Force Sensitives.

And so she did something discreet instead, hoping it would defuse the situation. Maerae waved a hand below her robe, unable to be seen by others, and muttered something under her breath.

A few feet away, the elderly woman sitting next to [member="Nayru Wyndaru"] stood up abruptly, and walked away with the words, "I should give up my seat."

As she walked away from the nervous girl, Maerae strode to her now vacant chair, and plopped herself down in it. She turned to the girl, and spoke, "consider yourself lucky. Were I a Jedi, I would have already thrown you off the ship for whatever it is you're planning."

 

[Sesha Olan]

Sesha moves her index finger over her hand of cards with a furrow in her brow. In a moment she cracks a smile as she slides a card into her other hand, slamming it down on her thigh. A blue D[SIZE=11pt]roideka[/SIZE] card, decent strength and a guarantee to beat any white card, she smiled and looked at the man in the seat next to her eyeing his hand with a focus as strong as Mandalorian iron.

Sesha had managed to convince the man next to her to a hand of Chambers as they waited for the ship to arrive [SIZE=11pt]at[/SIZE] their destination, wherever that was. The man was an average looking human with a bald head. He wore a pressed suit with a navy blue tie, the wrinkles of old age have made themselves a home on his face for a while now and he smiled as he played. Sesha assumed the man was just happy to have company on his ride as the cards seemed to fly down fast.

Sesha moves her hands in the air in triumph, rolling her shoulders while looking down at her card. She then runs her hand down one of her head tails before looking back to the man and in an arrogant voice saying, “And with that card, that’s game.”

The man smiles at Sesha, showing dimples on his cheeks before looking back down at his cards. He takes a moment to look through his available cards before shaking his head as he placed down a red Emperor with a hearty laugh. He smiles again, revealing yellowing teeth and speaks to Sesha in a soothing yet gruff voice, “No, with that, that is game.”

Sesha threw her head back and laughed quietly for a few seconds. She moves her hand to her jacket and starts digging into her pockets for some credits. Finding her jacket pocket empty she shrugs with a chuckle and talks to the man beside her, “Sorry, you’ve made me broke. Nothing left in there.”

The man nods his head silently before looking at his cards once again. Before long he places down another card [SIZE=11pt]on[/SIZE] his thigh, “Ah, we don’t gotta bet any more money. Just keep me entertained for the rest of this ride and were square.”

Sesha immediately darts her attention back over to her hand with a newfound confidence, “Deal.”

While the other man looks over his cards Sesha sees a group crowding around a woman near her. She shrugs and glances back to the man, taking a card in her hand, as she begins speaking in a soft, friendly tone, "Alright this time I got ya."

 

[Merric Rhoso]

Merric laid across the seat his head leaning comfortably against his bag, his eyes tightly shut as he slept comfortably on the metal seat. He found comfort and rest wherever he needed it and long trips were perfect to catch some needed Z's. That is until the sleep was rudely interrupted by the intercom informing the passengers of the remaining time of the trip.

Merric's eyes Slowly opened to the sight of the ceiling of the ship, he sat up rubbing his eyes before grabbing his pack and sliding it onto his shoulders. Looking around he takes in the surrounding area and other travelers, the snarling Torgorian stole his attention as he watched intrigued by what seemed like a slow way to communicate with a data pad. His mind flooded with ideas on a type of technology that would be much more convenient translation speech device that could fit comfortably on the head or ear and translate voices of races that lack the common vocal cords.


He smiles to himself looking to the woman the Torgorian was communicating with, raising a brow he wonders what a person like that is doing on a public transport and a notepad hmmm?? interesting. Rolling his eyes away from the two he looks back around the transport wondering what he'll do for the next 29 minutes. Releasing a sigh he activates his wrist computer and launching a game relatively close to space invaders to try and make the time pass faster.


[member="Sesha Olan"] [member="Maerae Irelia"] [member="Maur"] [member="Nayru Wyndaru"]

 

[Nayru Wyndaru]

"Make a mental note to work on being so obvious." Nayru muttered to herself, for she had gained the attention of a few of the passengers sitting nearby. First, a Togorian sitting behind her handed her a data pad that said, :: Please excuse, You seem having distress. Can I assist? ::

As she was about to respond, a man sitting a few seats away advised her to get some rest. Nayru smiled in response and said, "If only it were as easy as closing my eyes and falling asleep.

Then, a woman around Nayru's age came and sat in the suddenly empty seat beside her. She said, "Consider yourself lucky. Were I a Jedi, I would have already thrown you off the ship for whatever it is you're planning."

Nayru sputtered in response, "I-I don't know what you are talking about, I am just going to visit the flying city." She cursed her home world for discouraging dishonest, for her words were as truthful as a criminal playing poker.

[member="Merric Rhoso"] [member="Sesha Olan"] [member="Maerae Irelia"] [member="Jovian Coopre"] [member="Maur"]

 

[HK-36]

[member="Maerae Irelia"], [member="Nayru Wyndaru"],


Although the Metal Lords and Iron Empire were similar in their naming conventions, they seemed to differ when it comes to laws regarding Force users. While the Iron Empire may have not been welcoming of Force Users, the Metal Lords did not really care to take a strong stance on Force users in general. Whether brandishing a lightsaber or using the Force in public was legal or not depended on which Metal Lord's territory they were currently in as the Droid Space lacked a central government, so the laws would often differ from planet to planet and even from ship to ship. However the fact that no Metal Lord was allowed to make public deals with the Sith and they actively hunted down the remnants of One Sith empire still found in the area could be a pretty good clue that wielding a red-bladed lightsaber was a good way to get arrested or just shot right away in the Droid Space, for there were plenty of rumors about the things Droid Lords did to their Sith prisoners, including stories that they would execute them and abusive droid-owners by pouring molten durasteel over them until their burned bodies were entirely encased in steel and they too became machines, or the tales about Sith who did not abandon their Dark-Side ways and seek redemption would be executed through instant vaporization, and their molecules re-purposed to form synthetic durasteel which was later forged into new droid bodies and weapons, in order to capture and kill more Sith.

Luckily they were much more welcoming towards Jedi and neutral Force-users, although some Metal Lords still found them somewhat annoying and did not allow using the Force without proper license, often unique to their planet or ship over which they ruled. The Droid Space was one of the, if not the only, sector of space where any droid or cyborg could become a ruler of a planet overnight, all they had to do was come before other Metal Lords and tell them that they are now a Metal Lord as well and wish to rule a planet. If the Machines agree they are suitably efficient to fulfill the task and that they will follow the Code of Metal Lords, which prohibited them from abusing their office and mistreat their organic citizens, they were given the title and land just like that. This easy and fickle nature of their system meant, however, that planets often change which Metal Lord was looking over them quite often in relatively short span of time, only few planets, like Denon, Loronar, or Nubia, maintained the same Lord over longer period of time. This open nature of Metal Lords' governing system made it a very good place to get rich quickly, whether through playing it by their rules, or making marks from some of the many merchants that aligned themselves with the machines.

As a bureaucratic mess the Metal Lords did not had one single standing army or navy to protect all of the planets, in fact until recently the Droid Lords begun on streamlining and standardizing their forces to fall more in line with one another. The downside of this, for anyone who wanted to take advantage of the Metal Lords' subjects, was that there was more pressure on each planet and city-ship to maintain their own force in order to protect themselves and the Droid Space, so they could expect presence of some feudal fleets or armies wherever they went, including at least one droid forged entirely out of Phrik at any planetary or naval garrison.


The question was, how much of that did Nayru and her companions knew about going into this heist?

 

[Maur]

Of Droid Space, Maur only knew a little. Governments and hostilities towards Force sensitives did not concern her. But security, ah, therein lay the rub. No single vast army supplied by a united government but planetary defenses, each with their own unique brand of loyalty. Her trip here was purely one of investigation, should other jobs require her presence here.

But she was growing more and more distracted with the current events on the ship. In the middle of her translation playing for the agitated young woman, the elderly woman got up with a peculiarly monotone voice and walked away. That was odd. Two other humans came over, one male and one female, the female ignoring Maur's outstretched arm and sitting where the old snob had with an arrogant flounce that said "I'm in charge here." That was odder still. Both addressed the woman, the man talking like a merc just before a job and the woman like a condescending con. Maur sniffed and withdrew her datapad. Unprofessional. If you were going to do something illegal, it was best not to broadcast your approval or intent on a public ship.

Or hadn't they brain enough to consider that the young lady with the flimsi notepad simply had anxiety?

Whatever, it wasn't her problem. Maur closed the translation app and went back to perusing the blueprints of major sites of the flying city.

"I-I don't know what you are talking about, I am just going to visit the flying city."

Well, at least the girl was trying to be subtle.

| [member="Nayru Wyndaru"] | [member="Maerae Irelia"] | [member="Jovian Coopre"] |