The Docks

[Adder]

She opened her mouth again to speak, but nothing came out. Well, maybe a small, distressed noise, but nothing coherent. Chances were that [member="Sid"] understood her and that was it.

“Jo—”

Adder interrupted herself again, this time to glance fully at the main suspect of the fruit debacle. Tuning out the Huttese screams in the background, the woman scrutinized [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] properly. Toolbelt. Crap-gobbling grin. Mischievous eyes. Mussed hair. Juice stains. A discarded peel on the floor.

A single eyebrow arched.

“Yes. You should definitely move that. The man sounds upset.” Though ‘upset’ was, perhaps, the understatement of the week. Already he’d promised to sic some massive Houk mercenary on the kid, and the threats were getting worse by the second. Something about flaying and bared freighter exhausts? Admittedly, her Huttese was a tad rusty.

Keeping one eye on the girl, Adder maneuvered around the splattered fruit stains and towards [member="Jethro Wright"].

“What kind of a job?”



[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"] | [member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Sal Katarn]

A forefinger and thumb held the spittle-soaked application. Jethro made a face.

"Hang on, you-" The Sloth latched onto his belt like an asphyxiating man to the hull of a life pod. Jethro didn't think he could get him off without a crowbar. Well, maybe he could give the critter a chance. "-... are hired. But I expect you to put in the same work as every other crew member."

By the time he'd set down the wet form, great thundering steps drew his attention back up, and up, and up. All the way to a grinning mauve and drab skinned face with a double chin the size of a gourd. Jethro found himself staring at the biggest Houk he'd ever seen.

The redhead asked about the job.

"Cargo hauling, smuggling and maybe some pirating."

Bet that guy could lift a power loader all by himself.

He would have trouble fitting through some of the corridors. Definitely could not do maintenance work, but if it ever came to boarding action... Jethro slid two forms forward across the table.

"I'm Jethro Wright. You two got any experience with nav or engineering?"

Even people from backwater worlds knew how to operate basic comms and hyperspace. If they were all the way out here on Rebellion Actual Jethro assumed they knew their way around the basics of a ship.

[member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Sid"] | [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Adder"]

 

[Sid]

Sid looked up at [member="Jethro Wright"] and gave him his best Swiggity Swooty grin. The journey of ten steps began with finishing a day-long poop, or whatever that ancient proverb was...

Everything was golden until the skies darkened. Enter [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"]. Sid reached as quickly as he could for his AK, which was actually really slow. He was preparimg for the showdown of the century when his right hand enclosed around it...his right arm. Before he could remember what he was originally reaching for, he realized that this pose was quite comfortable for him.

Instead, he yelled a sloth yell as loud as he could sloth. Before the battle of fists came the battle of the minds. His obnoxiously loud sloth scream went on for ten seconds straight before he sneezed again and forgot why he was screaming.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Expert pilot." Kurt began with the obvious one.

It wasn't something he would ever be able to get rid of, it came as naturally to him as pissing came to a Bantha. He felt at home in the cockpit, more then he did anywhere else. He could fly most anything and learn to fly whatever was needed. Trying to pass off Kurt as anything but a pilot would have been foolish, even if they were trying to hide.

"Mechanic, sometimes." That was a minor skill, really. "I'm charming, know my way around the outer rim, and of course..."

He trailed off for a moment. "I'm the greatest lover in the galaxy."

A waggle of his eyebrows came.

"On my homeworld women came from miles away just to speak to me." His voice began to rise slightly, making a bit of a scene as he swung his arms. "The legend of Reach spread from town to town, continent to continent, world to world. Women weep at the sight of me and men burn with rage."

He looked at Kaile in earnest.

 

[Kinsey Starchaser]

[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] [member="Adder'] [member="Jethro Wright"]

"I'll be back before cast off Captain Wright," the teen mock-saluted her new employer and mouthed 'it'll be fine' to the woman with the sick tattoos and red hair. She had to edge carefully around Thrukk.

Head tilted back, eyes like starbursts widening. She went to high-five him, having to jump slightly to reach the bottom of one of his dangling hands.

"I'm Kinsey. Hope you join up."

She had to shake out her hand immediately. "Gorram-feth-chit," your hand's as solid as a rock. And now they knew the teen had a mouth. She didn't linger long. She was already halfway to the speeder, readying to push out and pack.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

A heavy snort and a roll of her eyes indicated exactly what she thought of Kurt's boast; it had merit to a degree, but not so much. She shook her head and kept on walking.

"More like a skill for boasting and exaggeration." she would drawl out, unable to hide the half quirk at the corner of her lip. Kurt had a knack of amusing her. Of making her smile. She was still a bit uneasy about doing this with him. It would be the first time she'd go on a mission with another; one who had nor formal training whatsoever. The bulk of the time they spent preparing the last month had been to go over the basics. With how adaptable the native of Tatooine was, she knew he could handle it.

As long as he didn't let his tongue slip.

A small commotion up ahead caught her attention, making her brows draw forward. "Huh, what do you figure is going on there?" she said aloud, more to herself than to Kurt. A small tap to his shoulder.

"Come on... let's practice your observation skills..."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

"Boasting?" Kurt said the word as though it were completely foreign to him. "That's absurd. Everyone knows Kurt Reach cannot tell a lie, why he's so honest that a back of wild Gundarks once tried to claim him as their King. Of course the beasts didn't quite understand why honesty was so important, but what can you expect from wild animals?"

There was a fine art to spewing out Bantha poodoo, an art that Kurt had long ago mastered.

Half of podracing was boosting up your own ego, for the crowd, for the Hutts, for the other racers. You had to know you were going to win, and then you had to convince other people of it too. The Boonta Eve was all about skill, true, but there were other races, and those races had stricter requirements than just money. Kurt had made himself needed throughout the racing circuit, everyone had wanted him due to his personality and his skill.

A big part of that past 'personality' was simple bantha poodoo...though perhaps some of it stuck "Alright."

He said quietly to Kaile, his tone more serious as they moved towards the commotion.

 

[Azula Tindara]

"Cargo hauling, smuggling and maybe some pirating." Bet that guy could lift a power loader all by himself. He would have trouble fitting through some of the corridors. Definitely could not do maintenance work, but if it ever came to boarding action... Jethro slid two forms forward across the table. "I'm Jethro Wright. You two got any experience with nav or engineering?"

"Nae much aam afraid, but those other thee things ye mentioned...those Ah can dae," Thrukk said. His grin suggested that he was altogether quite fond of those other three things. Bounty Hunting was always hard work. So much tracking and asking questions. A shame the Hutt Cartel had fallen apart. Spending his time looking menacing, drinking and bouncing dancing girls on one knee between their performances, those were perhaps things he liked even more than pirating.

"Ah can carry, but mair importantly when ur we cookin' 'at?" he asked, looking pointedly at the sloth again. It made a horrendous noise, better to be in the pot. Thrukk's stomach rumbled.

"I'm Kinsey. Hope you join up." She had to shake out her hand immediately. "Gorram-feth-chit," your hand's as solid as a rock. And now they knew the teen had a mouth. She didn't linger long. She was already halfway to the speeder, readying to push out and pack.

"Sorry abit 'at lassie," he apologies. Thrukk looked a little confused as to what had just happened. He turned back to [member="Jethro Wright"] with a grin that managed to look disarmingly friendly yet quite menacing at the same time. "Ah loch 'er. Got tae loove a lassie wi' a foul gob!"

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"] [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] @Sid @Jethro Wright

Weaving through the crowd, both Kurt and Kalie managed to get within earshot of the small commotion. No one could miss the Houk; large and broad, he was certainly taller and broader than any other Houk Kaile had ever seen. It prompted a measure of pause. Was this a fight? No, she told herself, the Lorrdian eyes narrowing to catch the body language of those involved. A tall, rather gristled man, wearing his years upon his face. A young woman - couldn't be no more than late teens perhaps. A creature of the sorts she'd never seen before was beside him, holding a sign.

Then there was a tattooed woman, short and svelte. With fiery red hair half shaved and the rest of the mane tossed to one side. Former training, her pose gave her that much. All of them had training to some degree, although the redhead held her spine just so. Hmm...

Glancing back to the sign, she caught the call for work. Her eyes gave a subtle flick, a small whirl. She was gathering what she could from her database splint in her head.

"What can you tell me?" she murmured low only for Kurt to hear.

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

In truth, Kurt didn't see much of anything.

Oh there was the obvious. The odd scuffle that was happening in front of him, the slow building crowd, the way that the redhead handled herself. She reminded Kurt of a few of the Watch Officers he'd met in the Navy, relaxed, but always watching for something. Perhaps she was some type of security here, or something along those lines. The rest? Well, Kurt couldn't tell apart humans all that well, though the massive alien whose voice sounded more like a horde of buzzing bees then a spoken language was certainly something to look at.

He frowned for a moment, looking up.

"We found a job." Kurt pointed towards the sign.

Profiling was Kaile's job, his was more...staying alive and flying around real fast. His strength's hardly lay in classifying one person from another, much less if he didn't know them or hadn't spoken to them at all. He was a charmer, a maker of friends, not a silent observer.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

At least a chance for one.

[member="Jethro Wright"], Captain of the The Bondara. The ad matched up to the name; that is if that was his real name. Her database was gathering only what she could scrub quickly. Anything more would require more time. The ad was placed by him, looking for a cargo haul crew. Odds were, however, that it was more than that.

"Yeah, reckon we have." Kaile said, her eyes flicking towards the Houk. This one had more. Hutt enforcer. Bounty Hunter. Mercenary. Ex-pit fighter. Her lips drew a bit thing. As a bounty hunter, he would have more access to databases and faces. Could be a small risk. It was the female, however, that confirmed her original thoughts about some sort of professional training. She was law enforcement for Sulan. Part-time at least. That.. might be a bit more trickier.

It didn't register for Kaile that she had briefly met the woman before. Some months back, sneaking out of a room. Crying. That whole time had been a rather large blur, but they hadn't done much besides that brief passing. She was different from the sobbing, puffy faced woman back then.

"Come on, let's go introduce ourselves."

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Kaileann Vera"]

He nodded. If there was one thing Kurt knew how to do, it was talk. More often then not that knowledge had gotten himself in quite a bit of trouble, it was part of the reason why he'd gotten kicked out of the Republics oh so esteemed navy.

Of course, the other part wouldn't be happening today, or ever again.

Kurt briefly thought of Jamie, remembering the time they had spent together in the tropics, thinking about how she was probably training in that very moment. Her lips thinned for a moment and he shifted his weight towards one side, trying to catch himself before he accidentally fell over his own feet. He knew that he would have to be a bit more careful then he usually was, if only so he didn't go prattling on about Tatooine or something else Kurt Reach wasn't supposed to know.

"Hey there!" Kurt called out to [member="Adder"] a big grin on his face.

He had no idea who she was, but it was best to start somewhere.

 

[Adder]

Annnnnd it just got weirder.

Adder scrunched up her face at the wet display [member="Sid"] put on, instantly happy that she’d hung back a few paces. The feeling blossomed into near-on ecstasy when a massive shadow fell over the crime scene, causing her to whirl around on the spot. Hadn’t the angry merchant mentioned a Houk brute?

[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] certainly fit that description, and then some. Scratch that, he was probably the definition every other violent mercenary aspired towards. Those misappropriated industrial robotics didn’t bode well.

Great.

Now she had two people to keep an eye on. Admittedly, [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] now seemed the lesser of both evils by a few meters, but the girl had a cut about her that the ex-copper didn’t like one bit.

“Smuggling and pirating, you say,” she repeated, voice flat. Much as it bothered her, Adder had about as much authority on the Rebellion Actual as the gizka digging through the splattered fruit. If they ever made a wrong move in Alliance space, though…

“How about both?” Once an undercover cop, always an undercover cop. “I’ve fixed up my share of rides.” And arrested twice that many fixers, but never you mind, [member="Jethro Wright"].
“If it flies, I can work it.”

Not a moment of quiet around here, it seemed.

Adder eyed the two newcomers, cataloging them on instinct like everyone else that wandered close enough to demand attention. And [member="Kurt Meyer"] had certainly demanded it.

Familiar spacer’s swagger to his walk – legs more used to a ship then solid ground. A lopsided grin, sparkling eyes, unbuttoned jacket. Oh, she knew his type. Couple of the boys on the force back when, used to be just like him. They would always race each other to the station.

That was before Gede died in a head-on crash in the Underbelly, of course.

Lips thinning, Adder glanced at [member="Kaileann Vera"] next to him. Older than the spacer, with eyes belying another decade of age. Quiet alarm bells went off in the back of her head at that look. Only intense experiences instilled that kind of maturity in one so young.

And not of the pleasant sort.

“Hey,” she greeted, taciturn. “Can I help you?”

 

[Sal Katarn]

Gingerly, the old mining hand removed the sloth's claws that'd hooked into his belt while the thing screamed at the Houk.

"Alright, knock it off."

Chuckling at Kinsey's remark, he looked up at [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] and smothered a grin. "Sloth's not on the menu today."

Honestly, he could probably do boiled sloth meat pretty easily. Just need a gallon or two of peanut oil, propane and a large durasteel container. Maybe leave it in for about an hour. Couldn't be any worse than the monkey lizard he'd served once at a family reunion. Still didn't understand what their problem was with it. Oh well. Some people couldn't appreciate creative cooking.

The woman with the tattoos sounded like she knew what she was about. "Good," he said to her, "Could use an experienced mechanic on board."

Two more fresh faces approached. One looked every inch the flyboy, got that daredevil in his smile and mischief in the eyes, rolling in like a Bith rockstar. So far the Bondara still needed a capable pilot at the helm and somehow he doubted he would be filling that spot with any of the other sign ons. Jethro briefly glanced at the wrecked fruit cart before returning to the second of the pair. A woman, nondescript, who seemed to be studying them all.

Had to admit, they made a pretty weird group. Mainly because of the Sloth with the slug thrower. Jethro still wasn't sure about him.

Predictably, the jock made a beeline for the redhead. Jethro smiled. "If any of you want to sign on to the Bondara, just make your mark here."

He indicated the stack of legal flimsi.

[member="Adder"] | [member="Kurt Meyer"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Sid"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"]

 

[Sid]

At first, he was outraged to have lost his spot as [member="Jethro Wright"]'s right hand sloth. Then, he realized what his intention must have been. He CLEARLY wanted Sid to act as lookout/security! What an ingenious tactic from the mind of their great leader! He crawled over to the table set and climbed, as only a sloth could climb. When he reached the top, he pulled himself into a seated position on top of the table and sat down, a contented smile on his face.

He slung the AK-47 around to rest in his lap. This was the best kind of job. He celebrated by taking a nap.

[member="Adder"] | [member="Kurt Meyer"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"] | [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

 

[Azula Tindara]

[member="Sid"] [member="Adder"] | [member="Kurt Meyer"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"] | [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"Aww an' he e'en has a wee gin!" Thrukk exclaimed as the sloth promptly fell asleep. He assumed he was the man's pet, but his mind still turned to the notion of cooking it.

He sighed the forms without bothering to read the print. People who hid things in small print tended to honour their verbal agreements when Thrukk became angry. He stepped aside, leaving room for a good four humans where he had been by the table.

He eyed the two newcomers, but neither of them held his attention. "What time dae we ship out?"

 

[Sal Katarn]

"Soon as we've got a full complement," Jethro said, not a little excited that the Houk decided to sign.

'Course, he hadn't really considered what would happen if - he glanced at the form - [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] decided he no longer wanted to be on his side. Then again, anybody on Rebellion Actual probably got vetted. Since the Underground didn't tend toward the nastier criminals, Jethro figured they would be alright.

The Captain looked at the other humans expectantly.

[member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | Kurt Meyer | [member="Adder"]

 

[Adder]

No witty response from the cocksure spacer. Her gaze lingered a moment longer before she turned back to [member="Jethro Wright"], then to the stack of contracts. Without rushing, Adder picked up one of them, keen eyes scanning the document for any troubling small print.

She couldn’t use her legal name, not while it sat on a desk in an office with poor AC and a stack of cold cases higher than Mount Tantiss. The gold lacquer might’ve been peeling, but the badge was very real. Any half-competent criminal would run a basic background check, and Ad Yrá Kjormenkaur Traficit would come up with troubling associations.

Pretending to consider the flimsi, Adder instead pondered the few identities at her disposal.

Falein Tan… burned in that Orson op. Miri Locnik? Chit, no. Tied to Hrognar and his gang. What about… The redhead lifted her gaze from the document and picked up the pen. She returned the flimsi to the prickly Captain with an untidy scrawl at the bottom. Could’ve been an A. Could’ve been a Z. No way to tell, really.

“Eagle Eyes Thalvi,” she said, offering the fleshy hand.

Turns out it was an S.

 

[Kaile Vera]

[member="Jethro Wright"] [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] @Sid @Adder @Kurt Meyer [member="Kinsey Starchaser"]

"We'll sign up." Kaile finally spoke up, taking a step forward. "If'n the pay, food, and lodgin' be the standard rate." it was more of a statement than a question. There were a few expectations that came from running a crew on a ship. A half smile shown a measure of friendilness and carefree nature that would give the indication the woman was rather easy to get along with.

"If so, when does it ship out and where will we be headin'?" had to ask a few bits of information.

 

[Sal Katarn]

"Nice to meet you all. I'll get these processed and give you all your access codes once you get settled in. Welcome aboard," Jethro said with a small smile behind the beard. He shook each of their hands in turn.

"We'll be shipping out on centaxday. Hope you got your affairs in order. Be there at 0600 sharp. First stop on the cargo run is along the Trition route, then we'll be back on the Rimma toward Elrood."

[member="Adder"] | [member="Kinsey Starchaser"] | [member="Thrukk Gulpdar"] | [member="Kaileann Vera"] | [member="Kurt Meyer"]