The Flags You Fly

[Eun]

"Ma'am, Kuryr and [member="Khaleel Malvern"] have both been sent your transmission."

"Good," said the teenager who sat atop her command chair as if it were a throne. Dark hair tumbled down just below her shoulders and her eyes were a keen, intelligent blue. She wore armor that looked Mandalorian, but bore none of the traditional markings. The helmet sat on her lap. "Helm, have we arrived at the designated location?"

"Yes'm, we're parked just outside the Mara Corridor at the coordinates you requested."

"Good, I bet they'll be kicking Kamino about this for months."

One of the crew snorted. They were pirates. The first indication being that they didn't wear uniforms. The second being the abundance of earrings present. Though no eyepatches or wooden legs, thanks to Neuro-Saav.

"Jan, you're sure the intel is good?" She glanced at her first mate, who stood near her.

"Hmm, well I think my answer'll be the same as the last three times you asked, ma'am," he said under his breath, so only she could hear. Louder, "Yes, Captain Shorn, all targeted vessels should be manned solely by droids. We're in the clear."

Kate snorted. "Thoroughness has its virtues. Now if we could just get these blasted captains on the comm. I wonder what their schedule looks like. Five hours of unproductive womanizing, an hour of productive whoring, thirty seconds of bliss," she mimed a deep voice, "And hmmm, thirty minutes of being a real kriffing pirate."

 

[Kuryr]

Fight day...



It was the crew's favorite day. Once every standard the crew took a day off to clear the air. If you had a problem with someone, save it for fight day, if you were a pissing mad raving lunatic and just wanted to break someone's face, you saved it for fight day. Kuryr had made it a tradition among the Blood Pact, and it had only 2 rules. No one was above a challenge, and no killing. If someone had a problem with Kuryr himself, he would fight, not that it happened much, but it had. Currently most of the crew, minus the essential personnel at stations, were in the cargo hold, standing around a makeshift fighting pit. Most of the crew was either drunk or high and they all cheered at the top of their lungs at the fight currently in progress. Fight day was all about equality, it was a way to bring the crew together while they beat their anger out of each other.

Inside the pit the two rodian twins, Lauron and Leslin were hammering out the details of their long standing feud again. He would never understand their inability to get along, but as long as they settled it in the pit on fight day, he didn't care. He did notice that Chuka was on one side of the pit and [member="Bellatrix Celvina"] was on the other, He had made it clear to them both that fight day was off limits until a time that he felt they could fight without killing each other. It was clear Chuka was mad about that idea by the way she had severely injured the bothan engineer that she had called out for some silly slight that had no business in the pit. Shaking his head he noticed that Dekka was standing off the the side with a concerned look on his face. With a nod and a slight wave he moved to one of the far corners of the room away from the excitement of the fighting.

"Kuryr, wee'sa gots a message. Some big bando poodoo pirate eesa callen you." The gungan said in his broken basic, his voice sounded like rough and tired, but the gungan looked every bit as mean as he had the day he had lost his eye stalk and most of the flesh on his ear.

Kuryr nodded and patted the smaller gungan on the shoulder. "I'll head to the bridge and give it a listen, round up the vanguard, and grab Bellatrix while you're at it, Chuka be dammed." He added. He walked towards the hallway doors stopping only long enough to grab his pistol belt out pile of them that were amassed by the door. That was his first addition to the rules, weapons were checked at the door, on penalty of getting spaced. He was fine with the crew fighting, but he wanted them alive for the next raid.


[member="Katya Shorn"]

 

[Armand Temi]

“Thwack! Thwack! Thump! Ohnnnggmmm!”

With her arms crossed, and her shapely hips shifting to one side, Bellatrix watched the Twin Rodians beat the poodoo out of each other in the makeshift cargo hold fight pit. Although she would never have predicted this, the Chiss/Balosar girl had begun to look forward to Fight Day. Because as a lower-ranking slave in the Blood Pact, she was often the target of violence, teasing, and wanton bullying. The Rodian Twins especially liked to grab her and taunt her mostly out of boredom.

And then there was Chukka. She kept a close eye on the Cathar who was presently on the other side of the cargo hold. Chukka’s special brand of torture was born from complete and utter frustration and disgust for the former dancer. They would never be friends, she was certain of that. But would they ever cease to be enemies? Her eyes met the Cathar’s feline gaze, but she remained impassive. She had learned to show no fear or else the other female’s brutality would be worse.

Always watching for nuances and changes in the emotional temperature in the room, Bellatrix’s antennapalps perked up when she heard Dekka summoning her Master and Leader of the Blood Pact, Kuryr.

And when the gungan came to fetch her, she immediately followed him, giving Chukka one last self-satisfied glance over her exposed blue shoulder. She wouldn’t ask the Taung Pirate any questions yet, but she knew he would entertain her curiosity as he seemed to be warming to her lately. Hopefully it’s genuine, she thought. For she also knew first-hand how manipulative the lizard-monkey could be.

[member="Kuryr"] [member="Katya Shorn"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Arage Bao]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px][member="Katya Shorn"] | [member="Kuryr"] | [member="Bellatrix Celvina"][/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Khal vaguely remembered Katya Shorn, they had met only once - in a time when he was still trying out that Jedi-gig, training people up on the roofs of Nar Shaddaa and give them actual, worthwhile combat slash urban experience. Long time since that, but he wasn’t the kind of guy who wouldn’t heed a call of a… what, [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]friend?[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Didn’t sound all too right in his ears, but Shorn could be useful. She knew her way around the Galaxy, those Heralds of Chaos were pretty damn good ‘privateers’ and in the end, there was always profit to be had.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Just had to know where to look.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]A single transport docked itself with her flagship, out of it came the Underlord and in his wake a couple of his own operatives; professional operators, not the kind of goons you would be expecting all that much.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]Took him a few moments to traverse the place from the hangar to the bridge, but there she was - all dark, blue-eyed and lazily resting on a [/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]throne[/SIZE][SIZE=10.6666666666667px]. Kinda like her father in that way, and the only thing Khaleel could wonder was if she even realized the uncanny resemblance that they had in attitude without actually sharing any… contact.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10.6666666666667px]“Miss Shorn.” Khal would greet her with a nod, before taking a wide look across the entire bridge.[/SIZE]

 

[Eun]

"Malvy, nice to see you again."

Kate remained seated. A calculating gaze eyed the thatch-haired nerfherder up and down. Hmm, so he hadn't shown up drunk. None of his companions looked like floozies either. Seemed as though he might actually be serious about helping her with this little operation.

"Welcome to the Heralds."

She lackadaisically gestured, indicating the bridge crew.

"You're standing on the Pariah II. The Peregrine-class accompanying us is the Twilight. Both ships and those brought by," her lips twitched, as though under strained politeness, "[member="Kuryr"], should be enough to handle the Techno Union convoy. If he accepts he should be arriving at these coordinates any minute now. I expect you've already read the dossier? They'll have droid crews, so we won't need to worry about any civilians getting hurt."

One of the crewman glowered at her. She dismissed it. She knew Colvy's opinions on Droid Rights. Hell, she'd been raised by a droid. But when humanoids got blown to bits they couldn't be put back together. It was as simple as that.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Bellatrix Celvina"]

 

[Kuryr]

The Raptor slipped from hyperspace at the coordinates that were forwarded to the ship by [member="Katya Shorn"]. Kuryr stood off to the side and watched as the crew got the ship ready to fight should anything suddenly pop up. Dekka sat in the command chair, as he usually did when the ship was in motion. Kuryr didn't step on the man's toes when it came to running the ship, very few people were as capable as the old gungan when it came time for an attack. He glanded over at [member="Bellatrix Celvina"], standing by herself on over corner of the bridge, she had been requested so she stayed, but that didn't mean she was going to gain anyone's attention.

Dekka looked over towards Kuryr and nodded, " Kuryr, the ships are here as they said in the call. I'm hailing them now."

Kuryr sighed and took a final puff of his cigarra before stepping up to the projector, " Captain Shorn. It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm here, what exactly are we going to be stealing today?" The crew of the Raptor could clearly be seen behind him, all of them were looking up and into the holo-transmitter, as curious as the the job as their leader. They were near Techno Union space, that fact made it worth the trip, if he declined the offer of work from the young captain, he could always find a fat target to hit, rumors of the Union's coffers were not to be ignored. A nice fat luxury liner would do wonders for crew morale. Not to mention his growing slave trade.

[member="Khaleel Malvern"]

 

[Eun]

The incoming holoconference call drew Kate's attention away from the ex-Jedi scoundrel and toward the ugliest pirate she'd ever seen. The image of [member="Kuryr"] was cast in stark relief upon the bridge's holoscreen. Kate fought back an expression somewhere between giggle and grimace.

"Captain," she acknowledged, "We'll be stealing a shipment of Hegemonic Automaton goods. Mostly high-end technology with a high re-sale value on the black market. The ships are Arceneau traders with a crew made up of droids, which means we can sell the crew too after we eliminate them. We've been contacted by a private contractor and will be paid 100,000 each upon completion of the mission. That doesn't include the substantial payout we'd be getting from selling our swag. At the contractors' request, we will be using Vitae Alliance transponder codes. Our orders are to leave no survivors. Good thing they're all droids."

Shorn glanced at a chrono. "Hmm, they should be hear in about an hour if the convoy is on schedule. The Pariah II's gravity well projector will pull them out of hyperspace. After that it's all conner nets and ion cannons. Then we board. Are you ready, captains?"

[member="Khaleel Malvern"] | [member="Bellatrix Celvina"]

 

[Kuryr]

Kuryr listened and nodded along while the young captain spoke. He was intrigued by the simple operation that she had asked him to participate in, he puffed on his cigarra and smiled, " So there is a good chance they are all droid controlled ships? That's a shame, we should have ransomed the crews back to the Union. Is there a specific place you want me to position my ship?"

He turned to look at the worn out and disfigured gungan, who nodded his head but remained silent. He knew Dekka would ask him about placement and timing. " what kind of resistance are you anticipating? Will there be escort ships protecting the convoy?" He loved pulling ships out of hyperspace but you never knew what you were going to pull by accident. The last thing they needed was a Union battle group falling out of hyperspace on top of them. He had seen it happen before and the idea of it happening again gave him pause. He wasn't afraid of a good fight, he made it a habit of not getting into bad ones. Longevity as a pirate was attributed to planning and knowing when you have bitten off too much.

" We will have our assault shuttles ready to go. As soon as the ships are pulled out of hyperspace we will launch shuttles and fighters." He turned away from the holoprojector, not waiting for a reply. He didn't care what the other captain thought about him, if she could do this job without him she would have. He had a job to prepare for. There was time to talk afterwards.

[member="Katya Shorn"]