Outer Rim Barbecue [ORC and friends]

[Xin Boa]

This was the best mission he'd been sent on for the Fleet. By a long distance. It wasn't his first diplomatic rodeo, but it was the first when there wasn't a chance of being eaten, sacrificed or locked up if things did not go well.

His more relaxed mood was shown by the way he dressed his headtails. Rather than steel bands, or plain white fabric neatly binding them in pairs they were decorated in patterned leather straps, feathers and a few golden bands. As per usual he wore a tee, red today, with a sleeveless jerkin over the top with plenty of pockets. His arms and headtails were decorated in matching black tattoos. They were a stark contrast to his yellow-green skin.

"Lot of humans for an Outer Rim gathering," he remarked to Brak, his barabel companion.

"Got a problem with humans squidly?" Brak asked. "Did seem to have one with red."

"No, no I didn't," Xin replied in a distant manner. Good memories. "And despite being responsible for most of the wars that mess up the galaxy, no I don't have a problem with them on the whole. Just didn't expect so many at a gathering this far from the core."

"Beer?"

"Beer. Beer and meat."

 

[Mala]

The droid relinquished his prize, sending Mala, who had gone so far to place her feet upon the droids body for leverage, sprawling into the sand. Cackling madly, triumphant in her theft Mala stay laying where she was. "Food, food, food!" she trilled in a sing song voice, before taking a huge bite of the first skewer.

Then, she remembered she was out in the open. Panic flared and she scrambled to her feet teeth bared, a little of the meat poking through them, ready to bite anyone who dared to take it from her. But no one seemed to mind. Her ears twitched, listening for the tell tale whine of a blaster or the click of a safety being flicked off, but there was nothing. She covered her teeth and chew uncertainly, edging away from the crowd slowly till she was certain she wasn't going to be attacked before bolting back into the shadows from where she came and devouring her prize, meat juice dribbling down her chin and dropping onto her top, another stain to join the collection.

Her treat didn't last long though and it seemed to only make her more hungry.

She reassessed. They hadn't shot her, hadn't tried to stab her. In fact they'd been more than content to let her get away with it. She opted for a different tactic, digging into one of the many pouches that bulged at her belt and pulling out he assortment of shiny's. She didn't like giving them up, she traded with him before and tended to steal them back later, maybe that would work here maybe it wouldn't. If it didn't she had to chose carefully. She laid them out in front of her: a cheap necklace she'd pinched from one of the vendors, it had a big crystal pendant on it; a chrome mirror she'd ripped off a speeder, said speeder had almost flattened her; a handful of bronze chess pieces and some other scraps of metal. She scooped up two of the chess pieces and stuffed the rest back in her pouches.

If she couldn't steal them back, she'd take the rest of the set in the town. Cautiously she approached the one by the barbecue and tugged at his top, before jumping back out of arms reach. Her ears were flat against her head fear mingled with determination in her orb like eyes and she extended her hand with the two pieces towards him.

"Mala trade. Food for shiny?"

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge had spent several weeks looking for Jorus in the wake of his finding out that Mara had been kidnapped, and Jorus potentially coerced into doing something particularly stupid. So far, Jorus hadn't done anything of note, and that bothered him. It meant something had happened - either he was making plans, or some unknown event had occurred which had forestalled him. Perhaps Mara was already dead.

Regardless of the reasoning, his network had tracked the man here, to Zonju V.

A single burning trail of flame crossed the sky like a meteor, bright as day, though it became abundantly clear within a pair of minutes that it was angling straight for the barbecue. When it impacted, it did so with enough force to send a quake through the immediate vicinity, the fiery nature of it's reentry turning the hull partially black, though nothing could obscure the Omega symbol emblazoned on the side. The teardrop shaped vessel opened, doors slamming down, and Sarge came out with his bolter up, another man behind him in similar armor.

It was just him and Hastings, mostly for ease of a quick extract, and he'd had a gunship sent to idle over the horizon for when they inevitably found Jorus - and, perhaps, Mara.

About two seconds passed, and he realized he was looking at a happy Jorus, standing over a grill, doing... peaceful things. Slowly, he panned his red helmet to Hastings, who hadn't even pulled out his own weapon. "Really?" He asks, voice distorted by his helmet emitter.

There was a chuckle from his shorter companion, though it sounded like a radio growling with static. "I told you I'd get you back for Carrion VII."

Sarge frowned deep. "You're an nerf herder." His hands dropped, and he maglocked the weapon to his thighplate before taking a step towards Jorus, reaching up to remove his helmet. His expression was deathly serious, but twinged with a level of annoyance Jorus had likely last seen before the chain of events had started that'd led to the conception of Jorus' daughter. It was there, tightening the edge of his eyes and lips, and furrowing the inside of his brow.

"Is Mara safe?" A simple enough question.

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

 

[Bryce Bantam]

With the fire filled arival of the parties latest guest a new problem had emerged. His quest to get to Jorus as quick as possible had caused him to land closer to the party than most others. Not seeming to worry about where his final LZ had been he had unfortuately touched down driectly on top of the kegs Bryce and next to the bar area in general. Bryce farely close to the impact zone had been thrown from his feet and back some ten meters. Fine other than a few bumps and brused he looked at alacholic apocalypse that had just acurred with utter disbelief.

"Yo, seriously man, Party foul... there was a reason everyone else was parking back there. Now look, you made me spill my drink."

Bryce was not adept as most with liquir control, why Julous would have nare spilled a drop, all Bryce could do was stare at the handle of his mug. The only thing that remained of it after the calamity.

"Feth well I hope you brought something other than that heavy armor and feth load of guns to the party man, it was a BYOB."

Amature, Bryce thought as he turned away, will no use crying over obliterated wine however... and with that he left only to return a few minutes later with a few cases of outback moonshine in one arm, a metal case he held in the other hand and a loaded six string on his back. Placing the jet fuel far away from "Mr Big Armor Mc Smashy stuff," he next returned to were Lady Thul was still standing seeminging speachless with all the random and chaotic events of the evening.

"Don't worry, things should calm down in a bit, still may want to be on your toes and all." Bryce said to Elaine as he returned.

Placing the case down on a rock next to her, be opened it and reviel two chilled bottles of Vin-lour de Biitu, two ever-cool wine glasses and a silver wine bottle opener. With the skill of a master sommelier he opened the three hundred dollor vintage and proceeded to pour her a glass and hand it to her. Finally with a little peace he poured himself a glass also and took a seat on a broken log. It was the good stuff, smooth and sweet if flowed softly down his throat like snow over a mountian. He had brought the last of his back up stach for other to enjoy, but had saved his best stuff for his personal use. Now satasifed he would not need to move again anytime soon he pulled the six string from his back and began to tune it. As he began to play he looked back at Elaine before asking...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94-KCPOxd2Y

"So Jorus called you Dutchess, he kidding or you got some nobility to back up that accent?" [member="Elaine Thul"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Mala"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"]

“Sounds like a good swap to me. Can always use a couple bits of good bronze.” Jorus traded two loaded skewers for the chess pieces. One of the tools on his belt confirmed density and composition: the bronze went all the way through. Beautiful. Maybe he'd use these for plating, or as knobs on a control panel-

A drop pod’s impact curtailed his rumination and tossed half a dune over the fire. Shaking.sand from the meat, Jorus tossed in more fuel cubes and desert brush. There was a time to fuss and a time to be phlegmatic. It amused him to be the latter when his oldest friend made an impact.

Dad joke.

“Hey, Sarge. Take off the helmet and stay a while. We've got rabbit.” The joke faded. “Yeah, she's fine. Healing well. She's here somewhere, maybe with Kaili Talith - they're always thick as thieves.”

 

[Xin Boa]

"Is this an invasion," Xin asked as the fiery streak angled down towards them.

Brak shrugged. The barabel was so laid back he was almost horizontal. Most of his species thought he was a disgrace and he just didn't care.

Xin stood up. Brak didn't. He watched what he assumed was their death falling towards them.

The dropship landed and Xin covered his eyes against the tide of dust. The two forms came out and it seemed to unfold that one of them had played a practical joke on the other. One which had cost the party several kegs and ruined a round of food from the fire.

"Morons," Xin grumbled. "More armour than sense."

"More armour than most tanks," Brak reflected.

 

[Simone]

Simone flinched, as a wave of sand mixed with the remains of the drinks table she'd been at seconds before showered over her. The hilt of the knife tucked up her sleeve slid down into her palm and she turned round to find herself looking at a drop pod and two very heavily armoured men...

The knife slid back into its sheath. A knife was no good against that much armour, hell she wasn't even sure it had weak spots and if it did her little blade wasn't long enough to do anything. No for something like that she'd need to gain remote access, turn the internal computers in no doubt had against its occupant. Her eyes were scanning everything about it as one of them approached Jorus who seemed utterly relaxed about the whole thing. Taking it as a sign to relax she lifted the can to her mouth and blew the sane off the surface as a nautolan made a comment that made her grin.

"Probably compensating for something." she quipped moving over and extending her hand. "I'm Simone."

[member="Xin Boa"]

 

[Mala]

Mala let out a screech of fright as the drop pod landed, fear rooting her to the spot as sand showered her and her freshly acquired skewers. Wide eyes watched a metal monster approach and spoke. She didn't move, partly because she couldn't, and partly because her wide eyes were assessing what she could unscrew from it. "Shiny..." she breathed, the skewers in her hand momentarily forgotten as she inched forward, perhaps too small to be noticed and stuffed both skewers between her teeth for safe keeping.

She inched closer to its leg and tried to work her fingers under a panel on the back of her leg. A little giggle escaping her as she did.

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Elaine Thul]

Elaine watched [member="Bryce Bantam"] as he went off to get her a drink, she was happy someone was talking to her at a social. She was happy not being a wallflower, she had someone to talk to. He also possibly knew who she was, and did not run a mile. As she watched him walk away to get her drink, she and almost every person at the BBQ saw an unfortunate incident happen to an Iktotchi, a red skinned species. His towel fell of showing what lies below his gun belt, she tried not to look but could not help looking at [member="Vaudin Miir"], he strutted off like it was something to see, she just felt a little sorry for Iktotchi females. She lot's of other people coming, and some species she never seen before, she wonder if Bryce would be tell her what they where later. He then had a quick chat to [member="Jorus Merrill"], she could not hear what they talked about, due to distance and the crowd.

Then a ship came stright of orbit right next to BBQ, how much food and drink had the idiot spoiled. He almost put the fire out, and flames also burned some cat looking species, a couple people doused the poor creature. Then she saw [member="Sarge Potteiger"] come out in armour, well then again what else would the daft sod wear to a BBQ. She then saw Bryce say something to him, but she could not make out what. Then he head back over to Jorus, and talked to him, due entrance and his armour, she wonder how many men had guns aimed on him now, and not just her guards who in the crowd.

Then he came back with her drink, she smiled and then he asked "So Jorus called you Dutchess, he kidding or you got some nobility to back up that accent?" Her smiled frowned a little, he did not know who she was. She then replied Yes I am Duchess Elaine Thul, formerly of Alderaan, I am now of Elysian. The planet that is the border between the First Order, and the outback. She added it as he then have a reference, to where her world was. They came there after the rebellion failed on Alderaan, which was caused by hatred of sith. She also was spurred on, by the Republic being suddenly ejected from Alderaan. The fact as sith resided in the palace, made her make her fatal move, that lead to her exile. This was her side story, no doubt they their side of story. She waited to see what he said, now he knew the truth, as Organas had lot pull galaxy, and she was their enemy, not that she planned to do anything. She waited to see if she was handed her drink, or did what she expected him to do, and walk away from her.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge hefted his helmet in both hands, as if to tell [member="Jorus Merrill"] 'it's already off.' Looking around, he frowned deeply, then gave a sharp glare to Hastings, who was apparently well on his way to getting the hell out of Dodge. A dropship was already angling in to pick up the drop pod, and that solidified that Hastings had done this on purpose to make Sarge look like a total buffoon. It'd worked, of course, but he didn't help looking like an arse. A knife hand raised, punctuating the Inquisitor's words.

"Get back to the ship. Don't leave. Don't even look out a bloody viewport. I'll handle you later."

Hastings gave a sharp salute - his arms coming up to cross over his breastplate with a clang of metal on metal - and then he was gone, the only evidence left by now the crater of glass where the dropship had landed. "I'll tell the guys upstairs to find somewhere to get more beer." He said that to Jorus, not feeling [member="Mala"] at his leg. She would have a hell of a time getting the armor off; it'd take a mining laser or the specialized gantries they'd designed to get it off.

"For once, this wasn't a stunt I did on purpose. It won't happen again."

 

[Vaudin Miir]

Vaudin had stopped in his ship for a little longer than he had intended due to remembering he had an extra bottle of Corellian Scotch in the cockpit. He began walking back bottle in hand until a stiff breeze reminded him he hadn't brought his pants or his towel. He turned at the bottom of the boarding ramp and went back in the ship. He wrapped a beach towel around his skinny red backside tossed a pair of pants over his shoulder just in case and walked back to the gathering, bottle in hand.

He made no attempt to look ashamed. it wasn't the first time he had been disrobed in a crowd, not the first time his Iktotchi-hood had been on display. That and he really didn't care about much besides his ship and the occasional gathering with friends. The republic senate had desensitized him to just about everything else.

He went back to his seat only to find that the pilot he had stolen food from had cleaned off his plate. The bastard gave Vaudin an exaggerated wink when he sat down.

"That pretty pink woman said she thought you would be better equipped Vaud." The pilot joked.

"Your mom didn't complain." Vaudin said as he got up to go get more food, he took his bottle with him.


[member="Xin Boa"] [member="Sarge Potteiger"] [member="Marselia Urstalis"] [member="Ria Misrani"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Simone"] [member="Kaili Talith"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Elaine Thul"] [member="Bryce Bantam"] [member="Leo Vandermolen"] [member="Keric Dynt"] [member="Andorreth Vikar"] @Mala

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Simone"]

"I get de feeling someone just had a very expensive practical joke played out on dere expense," Xin replied as he watched the exchange between Sarge and his fellow soldier.

The nautolan wiped his hand down on his trousers, only to find that whist this might have cleaned off some of the grease from eating barbecued food by hand it added more dust that had settled on him. That damnable drop pod had kicked up a lot.

"I'm Xin, dat's Brak," he said as he shook hands. The barabel didn't get up but gave a mock salute. He wide, black eyes followed the path of the squib as it approached the power armour. What [member="Sarge Potteiger"] might not have known was that the entire squib economy was driven their uncanny ability to disassemble technology and put it back together in new ways.

"I say ef de big guy doesn't notice in five minutes de squib runs off with a piece of him," Xin offered a silly game of gambling.

"I say he noticed and cuffs the rat," Brak chuckled.

"Simone?" Xin asked to involve her. "Like de hair by de way," he added. He found it interesting that in humans females tended to decorate their hair more. In his species both tended to dress their headtails depending on the situation.

 

[Mala]

Mala put all her strength into trying to pull that panel off, planting her feet either side of it and pulling furiously, but it wouldn't budge. She let go, landing softly on her back, staring up at the machine and chewed her way through one of the skewers. "Tough shiny...needs tough thieving...." she muttered casting the now empty skewer to one side and sitting upright, she began pulling tools from her belt while chewing though the second one. A cutting torch, a set of dark goggles and a short silver cylinder that was most definitely a lightsaber.

Her favourite shiny by far. Id the cutting torch din't work, then that would. She dropped the half eaten skewer in the sand, pulled on her goggles and flicked on the blow torch, staring for several seconds at the bright light it produced, giggling madly. She took the torch to the shiny's leg.

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Simone]

Simone took a sip of the can, tilting it in response to the barabels salute before following their gaze to the squib and snorted. "Thanks." she grinned "I don't think the squib will get anything off it before he notices, but he'll have a hard time catching the rat. You ever seen a squib move? You see a few of them on Nar Shadda, I've seen them scale walls you and i would consider flat, to avoid a fight."

Not that Simone blamed them, when fights broke out in the streets of Nar Shadda they were usually bloody affairs. Still the Underground made good use of the techno-fiends, when they were around. "You underground?W she asked them, still watching the squib as the cutting torch spat to life in her hand.

[member="Xin Boa"]

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Simone"]

If Xin's eyes could have become wider, they did when the squib brazenly pulled out some tools. He kept silent on the matter for now.

"I'm nah with de Underground. "Me an' Brak are from de Fleet. It is.. .unfondly referred to as de Vagrant Fleet by many. But it's really ah refugee fleet. Mostly Corellians and...I really tink we might have to take day blowtorch away before de squib gets trodden on. "

Xin wasn't sure if that walking hulk of metal would even notice if it trod on the squib. Would probably just uproot a whole tree and use it to try and scrape the smear off.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

It was impossible not to notice [member="Mala"] getting in over her head. Not because he was prone to noticing three foot tall rodents standing in his blind spot, but because an a small notice was beeping in his helmet. Hefting it up to look, he noted the fact that his armor integrity was being compromised.

That made... no sense.

Looking around, he caught side of the tiny squib attempting to dismantle his armor, and did the first thing that came to mind - he mule-kicked back, aiming to make both a point and get the beast away from his gorram armor.

 

[H3xle]

Keric leaned back against a cooler, taking the occasional sip from his root beer as he continued in his favorite passtime.

People watching.

 

[Mala]

The leg moved and Mala blinked behind her dark goggles.

WHAM!

The armoured boot hit her full in the chest, catapulting her backwards into the sand and knocking the wind out of her. she lay still for a minute, barely breathing, waiting to see if another attack would come before sitting up, scrambling for the torch that had been thrown out of her hand and re-igniting it before bouncing back, to continue cutting.

Not her best move ever.

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

 

[Simone]

Simone took another sip of her drink. "Vagrants, huh. Didn't know that feelt was still flying. Suppose it makes sense, refugees are high in numbers these days. Oooooo" Simone winced as the squib was kicked back. "Too late for that I think." She shook her head and turned to ask Xin another question before realising that the squib was getting back up and...

Her jaw dropped.

"I can't work out, if its stupid, brave or just insane."

[member="Xin Boa"]

 

[Xin Boa]

[member="Simone"]

"Barely flying but...oh dear..."

Xin sighed and handed his beer to Brak. He didn't know who the man in the power armour was. All be really knew was that is was a man who had turned up to a barbecue in power armour. And a drop pod.

"I'm just gonna make sure dat squib doesn't get squashed," he told the zeltron. He managed to rush between the squib and the soldier, holding out his arms to try and form a barrier. "Woah! Wah yuh doing?"