Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Plight of the Salvager

Sebastian Thel

Guest
S
sci_fi_city_guards_by_yobarte.jpg
Beneath the derelict viewport of a shipwreck, Bast held a gear he had pried from a generator up to the pouring sunlight. Stray beams filled the crevices of the small cruiser, which he assumed had once been used to transport cargo. He gripped the rails of a ladder with all of his strength as he turned the gear around under the light beam, then slid the piece into his pocket as he made his way down.

A muted thudding, which sounded similar to approaching footsteps, sounded from a nearby corner and Sebastian arched his neck around as he held on to the ladder. He saw nothing and climbed back down to the metallic floor where his tools were splayed around an accelerator which he was in the process of modifying. Jumping off the ladder, he chuckled to himself upon finding the part he had been looking for.

Since leaving the Empire, Sebastian had began to gather the assets and parts he need to start his own workshop. Walking from the ladder to the pile of tools strewn across the ground, he looked turned to look at the shadows, which revealed nobody other than the soft, marching sound. He tilted his head to one side in curiosity, before dismissing the noise and sitting down beside the accelerator for a speeder car.

Bast pulled his goggles over his eyes and procured his welding tools and began to fasten a new knob to the device in order to position the gear. When he heard no response, he made nothing of the silence and immersed himself in his work, calculating the space required for the new gear to fit onto the latch.

Suddenly, the welder was knocked from his fingers, which were nearly singed in the process. As a foot kicked him firmly downward, he wrapped his arms around the accelerator and made sure that the trespasser had not damaged his work. The welder singed the metal floor as it was thrown to the side and Bast rolled over, gripping the piece of machinery before he faced the woman who had assaulted him.

"Please don't touch it!" He cried, shoving his goggles onto his forehead. Wearing a plain T-shirt beneath trousers attached to suspenders and tucked into boots, he appeared more concerned about the threat this woman posed to his machine, rather than his personal well-being.

[member="Jaya Tandris"]
 
Most people would have thought better and left after finding out they were sharing a shipwreck you were looking to salvage with a group of pirates, especially when they were on their own. The way Jaya went about things, however, was not often traditionally the smartest choice. She was keenly aware of this, yet she was also not blind to the fact she wasn't the most sane of people. In the end, she couldn't really be bothered to care about either thing. Zoey tended to keep her from the really dangerous jobs and activities, but she too did not know the danger the wreck her friend was making her way through woukd pose beforehand.

And so, Jaya decided to press on after silently taking out the lone pirate, whose presence alerted her of the fact there were likely many more around, with a swift but devastating blow to the back of the head with one of her gauntlets before he had the time to react despite the danger she was going to put herself in. Nobody was going to get in the way of her fun. The paychecks from her time with the Collective had set her up for many years to come, but sitting still was something the woman was only just short of allergic to.

Despite the the fact that more pirates were likely to be present in this place, causing her to move around more slowly and calculated, there were no others that she would run into while moving further into the ship. Eventually she would ball her gauntlets into fists and bring them down to the floor with a small, barely noticable thud and the signature sound of metal hitting metal. A combination of button presses within the fingers of the gauntlets would release the hold they had on their user, allowing Jaya's hands to escape their metal encasing. Salvaging required precision, something they were not made for. A backpack with tools was slung off her back and neatly placed next to them, but before she opened it the sound of a welding tool would fill her ears and put her on high alert. Somebody was nearby somewhere, and chances were it was one of the pirates.

The sound was not too far and as the woman slowly approached the person from behind after spotting him, he seemed to immersed in his work to notice anything else. Swiftly the woman worked him to the ground, but the visual alone made it quite clear he was not one of the pirates who were likely prowling around. The cry he let out as he clutched a piece of machinery only confirmed it, but more than that left her cringing at the possibility the very people she was trying to outsmart hearing it too. "Shh," she replied while bringing a finger in front of her lips to add a non-verbal layer to what she was trying to communicate, "be quiet. We're not the only ones in here."

Jaya took a deep breath as she waited for any other audial reactions from other parts of the wreck, but heard nothing. "You're not a pirate, they aren't that soft," she quietly remarked as she let the man get back on his feet. "But we do share this wreck with some. Not sure if you've noticed. Now I don't mind a bit of danger, but you may think differently about it." It was then when the woman picked up the sound of approaching footsteps, causing her to swear under her breath. "Stay right there and pretend I don't exist," she said before quietly moving to hide behind a large crate, preparing to ambush him if they decided to go see what the ruckus was all about.

[member="Sebastian Thel"]
 

Sebastian Thel

Guest
S
Holding onto his machine for dear life, or rather the life of his precious construction, Sebastian braced himself for another kick to the face. Instead, the woman spoke to him in a soft tone and gestured for him to be quiet. As she backed away, he unfurled his arms from around the accelerator and stared her down with a resentful glare. He turned off the power unit to which his welding iron was attached and stood upright, brushing down the front of his trousers and gathering up his tools.

"There's no need to be angry about it." Having not received the woman's gesture, Bast continued to make noises as he packed away his tools into a kit, which was attached to a strap. Slinging the strap around his shoulder, he kept his plasma torch handy in case he needed to open any doors.

"Well I'm not soft and I'm not scared of pirates." Glaring the woman down with contempt, he thought back to all the times he had barely escaped with his life. Once he would have considered himself soft, but not anymore, even though he did look like it. When the woman mentioned pirates, Sebastian ignited his plasma torch a few times to make sure it was working properly and stayed put behind her while crouched down beside a crate.

Footsteps approached through the corridor of the shipwreck. Planting his back against the wall, Bast stood quietly as he listened to cursing travel around the corner. He gripped the strap of the satchel holding his toolkit and looked over the shoulder of the woman, whose name he had not yet learned. The profanity continued as two large and smelly men marched into the room, heavy rifles held at their chest.

With a gasp, Sebastian realized that he was still out in the open and immediately ducked behind the crate with the warrior who had found him. They had seen him. One of the men pointed his rifle at the wall, firing a shot into the steel.

"Hey, come back here you little bastard!" A pirate with one eye behind a metal patch (how original) cursed as Sebastian took cover beside his companion. "Oh, ho ho." The man taunted as he walked behind the crates and found the woman. "Looks like he's got a girlfriend!" The other pirate laughed.

"I don't like girls!" Sebastian yelled in a defiant tone, wincing slightly as his shoulder touched Jaya. As the pirates looked him and down, one of them marched over to the accelerator he had been building and stomped his foot directly into the machine, smashing it to pieces before Sebastian's eyes. Seething with anger, he felt fixed to the crate, unable to move as his features fell in despair.

Bast wanted to fire his plasma torch directly into the pirate's face. His hand quivered as it wrapped it around the device, unable to use it as a weapon. He could not bring himself to cause any harm towards the man, even though he had just destroyed his work.

[member="Jaya Tandris"]
 
When the stranger gave away their position and led the duo of pirates straight towards them it took Jaya every last bit of mental fortitude she had to keep herself from breaking his jaw or potentially much worse, but the frustration was written all over her face as she went to stand up straight. Her entire plan had just gone down the refresher and it forced her to come up with a plan B on the fly, but like a gift presented on a silver platter, the short exchange of words that took place gave her an idea that seemed just ridiculous enough to just work. It was all the woman had to work with, so there wasn't much of a choice either.

A quick collision of the man's shoulder against her arm brought Jaya's attention towards him, seeing him try to get himself to defend himself but ultimately failing. "See? You're soft," she said as she stepped forward without showing any fear, closing some of the distance between her and the pirates that stared them down. Their blasters were still holstered and their lumbering figures gave away that they probably didn't possess the fastest of reflexes, something the woman was going to make use of. "But hey, everyone needs somebody to love, right? I bet you two are very cute together." A smug grin was plastered all over her face now to cover up the previous frustration, and almost immediately the effect she had hoped for began to show.

"You think you're funny, eh? Well," the one with the eyepatch said as he walked up towards Jaya to where they were just an arm's reach away, "let's see how funny you think this-" without finishing his sentence he swung a fist aimed at the woman's face, which was exactly what she had been hoping for. Her boxing background kicked into gear and the punch was deftly sidestepped, then launched a swift strike of her own to his side. As he let out a groan to betray the fact it hurt she quickly changed her target, now bringing her foot to the back of his knee and forcing it to buckle and began to fall down. Before the other pirate could react she then put all the force she could muster into a punch straight to the temple. He was knocked out nearly instantly, but there was no time to catch her breath as the other man came dashing towards her.

"Hey softie, I could use your help you know!" The strike that was sent her way after the pirate charged at her forced her to roll out of the way, creating a little bit of distance once again to regroup.

[member="Sebastian Thel"]
 

Sebastian Thel

Guest
S
The look on Jaya's face told Sebastian right away that she felt like caving his head in. While taking cover behind the crate, he watched Jaya walk forward without any regard for her personal safety and approach the pirates. He opened his toolkit and fumbled around, then grabbed his spanner and turned to face Jaya as she taunted the pirates. The line of his mouth straightened in a discerning line when Jaya cracked the remark about the pirate and himself being cute together.

"I don't like boys either!" Jumping out from behind the crate, Bas blurted out as he swung his spanner clean into the head of the pirate who had smashed his machine. The man sputtered and cursed, before thumping the barrel of his blaster towards the head of Sebastian, who ducked and quickly darted to the opposite end of the room.

"Come here you little chit!" The pirate held his rifle up and aimed to where Sebastian stood, then fired a shot into the wall as the engineer ducked. Beneath the dust which filled the air and spattered onto the deck of the shipwreck, Bast gripped his hair and continued to dart around the length of the wall as the pirate took aim. Still wielding his spanner, he ran around the other side of the pirate and struck him clean in the back, which had little effect against the muscular man.

The pirate lurched around and grabbed Bast by the wrist, causing him to drop the spanner. With no weapons or combat training, the small engineer was defenseless against the man, who pulled him in closer and pressed the end of his rifle against his cheek. Smelling his stinking breath and feeling the heat of the rifle travel through his skin, Bast winced in disgust and squirmed while slamming his eyes shut and preying that this moment was not going to be his last.

[member="Jaya Tandris"]
 
With one of the pirates now out cold, Jaya quickly went to turn towards the other to see what all the noise she had heard while dealing with the threat that was aimed at her directly had been all about. What she saw, however, was far from a good thing. The woman may not even have known the man's name, but despite the way she went about life often making people think she wasn't very bothered about the wellbeing of others, they were also often surprised by the risks she sometimes took to help somebody in direct danger. With the blaster rifle a bit too close to the stranger's head, this would be one of those moments.

The silent approach was rarely the preferred way of doing anything, but this time there wasn't much to be done about it. With the pirate's back turned on Jaya, perhaps the biggest mistake he could have made at that point in time, she quietly moved up behind him with her eyes fixed on the rifle. That was going to have to be dealt with first to make sure no accidents could happen. In a swift motion the woman gripped the still-hot barrel and yanked it out of its owner's hand, then tossed it far away. It was much smarter to use the blaster herself to eliminate all risks, but it was her stubborn pride that would not allow her to. Instead she once again went for the kick to the back of the knee, looking to cut him down in size. Swiftly grabbing the spanner that had been dropped before, she then smacked him upside the head and with that the lights of the second pirate had been put out.

Jaya blew out a large quantity of air through her mouth to express her relief, even if she was keenly aware there would be more to deal with throughout the shipwreck. "That was something," she said as she offered the spanner back to the stranger, "That could've ended a lot worse. Here, I think this belongs to you." After handing it off the woman was reminded of her gauntlets and knowing this likely was not the end of it, fetching them was more than likely a good idea. "Now, there are two things you can do. One, you go on your merry way and do whatever you want to do. If that's your choice, you better pray this doesn't happen again." She knew that in his case, that was nothing more than a death sentence.

"Or, you pick option two. You come with me while I get my gauntlets and I'll get you out of here with all your limbs still attached to your body. I'd go with option two, If I were in your shoes."

[member="Sebastian Thel"]
 

Sebastian Thel

Guest
S
Just when he thought he was done for, Bas heard the footsteps of the woman approach from behind and grabbed the rifle from the pirate's hand. As she wrenched away his wrists, Sebastian squirmed free and fell over backwards as he watched her throw the blaster aside. She quickly grabbed the spanner that Sebastian had dropped and knocked the man clean over the head, causing him to fall unconscious on the sandy deck of the shipwreck.

Sighing in relief, Sebastian pulled himself to his feet and brushed down the front of his clothes. He looked at the woman with a creased brow and a curious glint in his eye, having not believed that she would go out of her way to save his life. Standing backwards, it took Sebastian a moment to approach her as the line of his mouth softened.

"You saved me!" The engineer exclaimed, raising his head to make eye contact with the woman for the first time since they had met. "I thought you were going to leave me to die." He shook his head in dismay, running a hand through his messy hair as he tried to find the words to express his gratitude. "Thank you." He said after a moment of pause.

"My name is Sebastian, but call me Bas or Bast." Offering his name, Sebastian retrieved the spanner from the woman's hand and rolled it back up into his toolkit. "What's your name?" He asked as he slung the toolkit over his shoulder. When she warned him that more pirates were going to make their way to the shipwreck, he gasped slightly and his face dropped in dread. If he went away on his own, they would surely catch him.

"I guess we're going to get your gauntlets, then." Shrugging, Bas followed the woman through the shipwreck. The desert breeze blew through every crevice of the hull, where whispered stirred and salvagers hid.

[member="Jaya Tandris"]
 
"Jaya," the woman responded, figuring there wasn't anything wrong with answering Sebastian's question. "I've been trying to make a concious effort to be less... brutal, I suppose. Got a nasty tendency to get violent, but I'm actively making sure it's merely aimed at those who deserve it." A quick and nonchalant tilt of the head pointed towards the two men lying on the floor unconcious. Jaya knew herself very well- she knew she wasn't the most sane of people and definitely not as civilized as most were, but on the slipside there wasn't much of a wish to change herself at her core. Still, as the years had gone by she became less of an unguided projectile, instead putting those traits to better use. As far as that was possible, at least. "So the least I could do is escort you to safety."

The gauntlets were not far off and with a small dose of luck having remained by her side as everything Jaya had left behind was in the exact same state she had left it behind in. "Keep an eye out for a bit," she said while she approached her gear, slinging the backpack over one shoulder before slipping her other arm into the second strap. The next thing to do was reintroduce her hands to her most prized possessions. Readying the gauntlets up was a bit of a process, which was the reason the request was made. Normally the woman wasn't all too concerned, but when one had access to an extra pair of eyes there was no reason to not put them to use.

Her hands slipped into the, relatively speaking, gigantic metal casings, the inside mold perfectly shaped to fit them. At every fingertip there was a button that could be pressed and everything had a specific combination of inputs to make it work, creating an extra unintentional but welcome effect that unless Jaya explained what combination did what, nobody but her would actually be able to operate them. The input to seal her hands into the gauntlets was the one made, a muffled clicking sound followed by a soft hiss paired with the grip now present on her lower arms letting her know they were ready to go.

"Alright, time to move," Jaya then told her lookout as she lifted her hands, and her gauntlets, off the ground, repressing the urge to slam her knuckles together to prevent herself from making too much noise. After passing Sebastian, she turned to the right and waited until she heard him moving as well before continuing. "Just telling you in advance, there's another guy knocked out cold near the entrance. Just uh, don't look at his head. He didn't catch me unarmed."

[member="Sebastian Thel"]
 

Sebastian Thel

Guest
S
When Jaya offered Sebastian her name, the engineer smiled and reached out a hand for her to shake. "That's good!" He said when she explained that she was trying to be less violent in her behaviour. Carrying his toolkit over one shoulder, he followed her through the shipwreck and ducked beneath the angled beams.

"I need to learn how to use a blaster, but hand-to-hand is something I'll never be able to do." Shrugging, Bas followed Jaya to the compartment where she had kept her gauntlets. He looked over her shoulder to inspect the design and creased his brow in keen intrigue. "They're nice. Did you build them yourself? I build droids." As he spoke, Jaya asked Sebastian to keep a look out. He turned around as instructed and leaned against the door frame to keep watch for any approaching enemies.

Sebastian heard Jaya's gauntlets hissing shut as they encased her wrists. Coiling his fingers over the door frame, he tilted his head to one side and scanned the area, before the woman grabbed her gear and joined him. He nodded when she told him about the man she had knocked out and continued to follow her to the entrance. Sure enough, one of the pirates lay face down where the two of them left the shipwreck.

"Oh look!" Bas said as he knelt down. He detached the pirate's comm-link from his wrist, which was beeping with an alert. Just as he motioned to press the button, the man groaned and started to move. "Erm..." Becoming flustered, Bas quickly grabbed the spanner from his suspender and bonked the pirate on the head, not hard enough to cause any bleeding, but hard enough to knock him out again.

Sebastian pressed the button on the comm-link to display the holo-screen. The data contained the location to vault of illegal technology, which was located right there on Jakku. Flicking through the information, Bas read the coordinates and offered the comm-link to Jaya to see what she made of the revelation. Stepping over the knocked-out man, Sebastian walked away into the desert, with Jaya following behind him.

"Looks like they're hoarding a vault of outlaw tech in the next town." Peering over the sand dunes, Bas looked out for the rooftops of Jakku's nearest settlement. "We could bust in and hand the goods over to the Coalition." He turned to Jaya with a cheeky smile. "If you feel like beating up more pirates, that is." He made his suggestion with a raised eyebrow, all the while thinking about all the exotic techhe could modify.

[member="Jaya Tandris"]
 
The 'uh-huh' sound that was used to respond to the question about Jaya's gauntlets confirmed the man's suspicions. When asked about she would normally talk about them endlessly if interest was shown, but time did not allow for that at this moment and as such her response was shorter than she had wished it to be. "Built 'em from scratch. They were my pet project, still are in a way. I will probably never consider them fully finished. This pair is one of a kind, made by myself, for myself. My pride," her left hand balled into a fist for a moment, "and joy." The woman's right hand followed suit before relaxing it again. "Used to do droid stuff on the side, mostly repair. Easy extra credits when I needed it, but that need isn't something I have to worry about anymore." She wasn't as careful with words as she probably should have been. It simply didn't bother her enough.

The two came to the entrance and as Jaya looked down at the knocked-out pirate, he looked in better shape than she had expected. Often times a blow from her gauntlet left a slightly gory display, but it seemed his skull was still intact. She wondered if he had a metal plate in there, and if that is what she had hit. Generally, looking down to see the damage wasn't something she did.

"What is it?" Bas took an item from the man who at the same time began to stir, but before Jaya could react a spanner had been introduced to his head to put him back to sleep. The scene caused her to snort slightly in amusement. "Nice," she said as her companion got to his feet, about to pat him on the back before realizing that wasn't the greatest of ideas in the current situation. Her arm lowered again. "Poor guy." It was a statement that wasn't all that genuine, but her tone made that quite easy to pick up on.

It turned out the comm-link had valuable information, something Jaya had to admit she would've missed due to the fact she generally wasn't too occupied with chasing down leads nowadays. They tended to just come her way, which this piece of information was too in a way. No matter what though, it was impossible to ignore the wide grin that began to form on her face. "With 'handing over', I would both hope and assume you mean in exchange for credits, goods, or services. And if there's anything I like, I'm keeping it." She went to look in the same direction to have her eyes meet the settlement. "Beating up pirates never gets boring and I want to know what they have stashed there. I guess we'll be vault hunters today."

[member="Bas Thel"]
 

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