Private Uncharted Business

[Jim Pehico]

Location: Level 1238, Coruscant, Home of the "Angry Acklay."

Jim walks into the bar confidently. After letting some of his underground contacts that he is available as a Pilot-for-Hire he feels for the first time in a long while that he is back on his game. the bar had a certain charm about it, though unless you were a regular or from around the area you would assume this dive was a dump, but for the patrons of level 1238 this bar is legendary for it's cheap drinks and vast amount of freelancers, whether you need a gun, a pilot, or anything in between the Angry Acklay has it all. As Jim walks by he greets his fellow regulars, even giving the Bartender Griff his signature Wink which the bartender, who unamusingly sighs at as he dries a glass behind the bar. Jim sits down and as he begins to speak the bartender holds up his hand and cuts him off.

"Look Pehico, I can't keep serving you with a tab this high. I know it and you know it. If I let you keep drinking what's to stop Larry over there from paying his tab, or that guy or the rest of my patrons? You pay me right now or the only thing you'll be sipping on is an ice cold water." Griff's frown is as permanent of a fixture to the Angry Acklay as the neon sign outside with the face of an Acklay above the building's name.

"Griff, Griff, Griff, in a matter of moments this bar is going to be crawling with customers, who are interested in my legendary flying and your drinks. Soon we'll both be rolling in credits" He smirked, confident that his name proceeds him.

Seconds at the bar turn to minutes, Minutes turn to hours, and by the time Jim knew it, it was an hour before closing time, with many of the other freelancer's already hired or gone.

"So about that tab..." Griff smiled sarcastically. A very rare sight in the establishment, one that only comes before the gloating begins.

Jim looked back at Griff defeatedly. "My Contacts are probably just waiting a day or two. No need to worry." Jim began fidgeting embarrassed that he talked himself up.

"Plus it's an hour before Closing Time... A lot can happen in an hour." Jim said confidently.

 

[Draco Miles]

A lot indeed… a Sith accolade was actually here on business in Coruscant, having heard that the best hired guns or pilots often lived right below the noses of the most powerful. She had been looking around all day for the best fit to her role, and even had a bit of contacts already in her mind. She kept searching though because her greed told her to get as many as possible, there may just be multiple diamonds in the same rough, and she was determined to find them all.

She entered the bar, looking between its sole patron and the bartender with fiery amber eyes. She stood at 6’11” and wore a brown cloak over her armor, but from her heavy footsteps, it could be determined she was wearing some serious protection. Her light blue hair shimmered in the light like oil on water as she sat down next to Jim Pehico

“Are you for hire?”

Just one sentence to change his entire future. A feminine voice that felt commanding and demanding of his attention. He was either in for a hell of a good time, or the worst experience of his entire life

 

[Jim Pehico]

As Jim sipped on his water (The only thing Griff would serve to him until his tab was paid) the clink clank of a heavily armored individual rang in his ears. A bounty hunter perhaps? Jim frantically searched his memory of anything recently that would get a bounty on his head but came up short. Regardless, Jim wasn't known for having the best memory, so the hand that was just cradling his glass of water is now on his lap, ready to make the first draw. Jim glanced behind him at the mysterious stranger rapidly approaching the bar. When Jim glanced over his shoulder, where he was expecting a face he was staring directly at an abdomen. His mustache twitched. He wasn't expecting a bounty hunter the size of a Wookie. He gulped and eased up on the blaster. Any plan to escape or fight back was instantly tossed out. If this person was a bounty hunter and they haven't killed him yet, Jim was not getting into a fight with someone a foot taller than him.

The person sat down right next to him. A bead of sweat formed on his forehead, Jim was a man of improvisations but he was coming up with squat. He felt the person's eyes on him and he tensed up waiting for the stranger to announce they're here to take him in, wherever in is. he took a sip of water expecting it to be the last sip of anything he'll have for a while.

"Are you for hire?" the voice rang out. This stranger popped the question Jim has been waiting for. His nervous expression quickly changed to one of joy.

The voice, while obviously belonging to a female, was also direct and firm. This was someone not to take lightly. Unfortunately for Jim, he has a habit of taking everything lightly.

Without even looking at his potential client he says "Would you look at that Griff," He smirked at the bartender. Jim Continues as the bartender shrugs and moves on to other customers, "Doll for you..." he trails off as he takes a better look of his potential client. There stood Draco Miles a woman of what species, Jim couldn't say, but her beautiful blue hair flowed down past her shoulders and were seemingly lit up by the dim bar's lights. He was in awe at her beauty. Though uncommon for a human, Jim was a man who has courted, or attempted to court, many women of many different species. Someone with a snout doesn't phase him at all. "I can be anything you need." He says with his signature smirk and a wink.

Jim takes a second look at her noticing her fit form, which even through the cloak and armor she was wearing, he had noticed. "Except for muscle. Obviously you have that covered." He says sheepishly, as he goes for another drink of his water.

 

[Draco Miles]

Confident, and seemingly frugal with his choice of drink. He seemed fairly decent if a choice so far. She let his words sink in as he complimented her and said he was essentially a Jack of all trades… working well in his favor. A grin spread across her face as her thick scaled tail moved up and Pat him on his lower back as she sat next to him

“You’ve certainly got some spirit. You’ve got a name, pilot? Debts I should know of?”

She didn’t need surprises in the form of bounty hunters or debt collectors, she may even just pay off all his debts so he could be an indentured servants to her, and with the nickname she gave him, let him know what his job would be while he’d be in her service. She’d flag the bartender down and order herself a water as well to join her new employee in quenching thirst. Draco certainly wasn’t broke, but also wasn’t a fan of alcohol. She couldn’t be caught in a different state of mind.

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim jumped a little with the sudden pat of the stranger's tail on his back but gave her a flirtatious smile back. when Draco asked her question the smile on his face turned to a quizzical expression.

"Name's Jim. Jim Pehico. As for debts..." He tugged on his collar. Griff stared at him quizzically.

"I owe Griff here a couple hundred credits. Besides that I'm debt free." He said. In the back of his mind he added "I think". Not wanting to scare a potential employer.

Draco Miles

 

[Draco Miles]

Only a tab for food? Interesting…

“You must be very good with your money then, for your only debt to be with food, Jim Pehico . You’re comfortable as well being a pilot? It looks like you shouldn’t need to worry about the alcohol policy, but just in case, don’t get drunk. My pilot needs to be sober at practically all times, we don’t know when the next mission will be coming in”

Most definitely this was a stricter policy than most, and had a high turnover rate because of that, but to entice him, she paid off his tab. Slapping down 900 credits like it was spare change, she let him know he would be compensated well for his work with just a single action

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim was caught off guard by the food comment. Food? Do they even serve food here? Jim can’t remember after all the times he’s gotten outrageously drunk here. Jim who loved his alcohol almost as much as his own mother, was about to deny the offer, when the woman took out 900 credits. Enough to pay off the Tab and then some. Draco Miles did it so nonchalantly that he wondered how many credits this woman has and how much she’s willing to spend on a grade-A pilot like himself.

“Sober got it. And I’m at my 2nd most comfortable behind a cockpit. I’m the best pilot on this side of the core. I can fly Freighters, Yachts, Star-fighters and everything in between. Unfortunately for you, this kind of experience comes at a premium.“ Jim said confidently.

 

[Draco Miles]

There was confident, and then there was a con man. Draco squinted her eyes as he said his skills came at a premium cost, and she crossed her arms. Fiery amber eyes now fully focused on him as she turned to face him and stared into his eyes. She had spent this long searching because she knew a bit about starships, especially her own.

“Your price will be determined by your skills. Meet me at hangar bay I58 and I’ll run a simulation to test you”

 

[Jim Pehico]

though Draco Miles seemed unimpressed, it wouldn’t be the first time he surprised someone with his skill. Most people see his cockiness and think it’s all talk. Even though he has a tendency to stretch the truth when it suits him, he never exaggerates his skill at flying. After taking an aptitude test on his home world of Naboo. He joined the Naboo Royal Space Fighter Corps at the ripe age of 17. He was one of the youngest in the academy but was already highly skilled because of his daily use of a neighbor’s flight simulator when he was teenager. To be fair this particular flight simulator was specific to N-1 Star-fighters but most simulations are similar enough.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing I didn't spend all those years playing with a flight simulator for nothing. I'll see you there and we'll see if I can give Anakin Skywalker a run for his money." Jim winked.

Jim decided to casually name drop the legendary pilot to tell her he meant business. Anakin was taught at the academy and was particularly known around the Corp as the youngest pilot of an N-1 Star fighter to this day. Jim was in the top 20 reaching his first flight just shy of his 18th birthday.

 

[Draco Miles]

“We will indeed…”

If only he knew they’d be hunting targets similar to him. Jedi had an advantage because of their ability to sense all around them and enhanced reaction timing, so shooting one down was especially difficult in its own sense. Draco pat Jim Pehico back once more before standing, glad to finally find a pilot

“I’ll be waiting, thank you for being so willing to accept this job offer”

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim jumped slightly again after Draco Miles tail patted his back.

“Any time.” He smirked. Once his potential new client left the bar he looked over to griff preparing to close the bar down.

“So how about a victory drink?” Jim smiled. Griff looked over frowning.

“You literally just had your bar tab paid for and you’re immediately trying to build it back up?” Griff asked with the intention to offend. “You are something else Pehico. Now scram, I’m closing the bar up early today.”

Jim got up and left, The cool under-city air smacked him in the face as soon as he exited the bar. He got a cab back to the crappy little motel he was staying at, while in the cab he stared out the window wondering if he’s making the right choice. At the door of his room, Jim’s faithful companion, R2-3Z, was waiting and beeped excitedly that he was back.

“Help me pack up we got a job.” Jim said trying to get a move on. The droid began to hound Jim with questions. Questions that were unnecessary. “Relax, I got a good sense about these kind of things. Name a time where I was wrong?” Jim said with a smirk. The droid began listing off instances when he indeed was wrong. “Okay…” Jim sighed, the droid continued with his list. “Well that one wasn’t my fault.“ Jim mumbled angrily, and the droid continued. “Threasy enough. It’s going to be okay. Why? Because I said so.” this caused the droid to stop and seemingly mutter out some whistles. “Remind me to fit you with a smaller data storage.” This caused the droid to angrily beep back. And he turned away and rolled himself into the bathroom. Jim sighed, maybe the little droid was right, well at the very least he’ll soon find out.

Once they were packed and the motel room key was returned. The left to the hangar. Once there the door was locked. Must be a nice spaceport because many of them are just open access. Jim hit the intercom button.

“Hey it’s Jim, I’m here with my copilot… he’s an Astromech, so I hope you like droids.” He said into it.

 

[Draco Miles]

Draco returned to the hanger, meeting with the general purpose neutralizer that currently was her pilot. She had named her Alfred!

“Alfred, I’m making your duties easier, I found a pilot.” She said, patting the much shorter droid on the shoulder. Although they were designed and looked like humans, even in height, Draco was still standing tall over them. Her ship only had three personnel, including herself. A medical droid, general purpose, and herself. She was thinking of using the General Purpose droid for repairs and weapon systems of the ship while Jim Pehico would take the roll of pilot

“In what way, Madam?”

The droid asked, wanting Draco to elaborate her plans of what would be happening to make the Nuetralizer’s job much easier… though they didn’t take the explanation all too well.

“With all due respect, madam, I am able to seamlessly interact with the Ship’s systems. A pilot could never be as good as me.”

“We’ll give this a try first, and with your full focus on the weapons systems, he shouldn’t need to be too good… right?”

“… as you wish.” The Neutralizer said through somewhat grit teeth, obviously not satisfied with this choice, but not really having the power to do anything about it.

Draco prepared the simulations and had just finished up calibrations when Jim came a knocking, a smile spread across her face under her helmet as she moved to open the door for him, still very much covered head to toe in armor. Now with her helmet on, instead of her amber eyes, he’d be staring at a cold blue visor, similar to an astronaut’s helmet

“You’re certainly good with your time, Jim, I just finished calibrations for the simulations. Come! Come, let’s get you tested. I’m surprised you have a droid with you as well…”

She waved him over to come inside the hangar bay, it certainly was fancy as well. It had to be for the House IO corvette that was inside, a 75meter long, 200 meter wide ship with some heavy ordinance on it. Draco’s pride and joy was gifted to her by her Master, Arianna Belasko, and even was customized to be perfect for the dragon. He better be bringing his A-Game

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim whistled with amazement when he walked in. As he got closer to Draco Miles he began to talk.

"That's a beautiful ship. I always did like my ships green... Matches my droid." he said with a smirk, referencing R2-3Z's green paneling that contrasted against his silver dome.

when he got closer he noticed that she was wearing a helmet, with a reflective visor. Smart don't have to worry about a Sabacc face if there is no face.

Jim got himself seated into the simulation chair.

"This certainly ain't gonna fly like an N-1. But don't you go worrying now, shouldn't be too different from a light freighter." He said with a smirk.

 

[Draco Miles]

“You’ll be testing against Alfred on your fighting skills, both of you will have full control over their own ship in this dog fight. Please perform to the best of your abilities, you’ll be given a 5 minute warm up to get used to the controls”

Draco briefed Jim Pehico as she gestured to the simulation chair he’d be sitting in for the test. She honestly wasn’t expecting him to win against Alfred, but wanted to see how long he could last

 

[Jim Pehico]

"Threasy access the ships systems tell me what I'm dealing with here." Before Draco Miles could protest, The droid took out it's scomp link and plugged itself into the ships computer. the droid started listing everything the ship had. "Man what an arsenal, what are you planning to go to war with GA with all of this?" The droid continued listing components "And some really sweet defensive capabilities, karking hell." Jim said impressed with the ship. With just over 4 minutes remaining Jim turned to Draco and said "Alrighty, let's light this candle."

 

[Draco Miles]

Jeez that droid was something… how rude to just look at a girl’s ship like that! She furrowed her brows under her helmet as he got into the simulation, she probably could take on a GA fleet… maybe she should… later though. For now, once he got into the simulation, it was an asteroid belt between him in his own ship, and another across the asteroid field, exactly the same and waiting for Jim Pehico to be ready for their dogfight

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim got his self acclimated into the 3d space. An asteroid field! most pilots that enter an asteroid field die let alone 2. Unfortunately for Jim the pilot he's going against is a droid, which means the other ship is going to be precise. The good thing about Droid pilots is that they're predictable. No creativity. A lot of good pilots die to droid pilots but the great pilots know that they just have to out play them. He zipped in between asteroids getting closer to his target however he miscalculated the wingspan and dinged the side of the simulated ship. "Sorry used to something more boxy than cylindrical this size!" Jim said not sweating it. As he went to engage the droid's ship was nowhere to be seen. as Jim searched where his foe maybe he showed up right behind him. "Crafty bag of bolts..." Jim growled. As Jim lead the other fighter further into the asteroid field. he figured he knew he had to do something drastic to get him off his tail. So he did something no one would ever think of. rounding a large asteroid just enough to get out of sight of the droid pilot. Jim completely and suddenly cut the power causing him to hurdle through space. this would cause the other ship's sensors to lose him and pick him up as debris the droid pilot who luckily didn't catch a visual flew right by him, possibly presuming he won the simulation. As asteroids damaged the hull of the lifeless ship, Jim turned everything back on and came out behind him getting a couple hits in but not enough to disable the ship. This caused Jim to turn around and get some space to try and prepare for a counter attack. As Jim and Alfred advanced on each other head to head. Jim knew he needed to try something drastic. Suddenly he flipped the ship and unloaded its heavy ordinance... it's missiles. Using the inertia from space as his ship stopped moving forward by using the engine, the missiles continued forward hitting asteroids, causing them to explode and make debris that shot off every direction. Not only would the ship detect the ordinance as random asteroid field debris but not even the best pilot could predict the where the pieces would shoot off to from the exploded asteroid. "YAHOOOOOO! Take that!" Jim yelled in excitement. He looked over at Draco Miles "Impressed?" he said with a smirk and a wink.

 

[Draco Miles]

Draco watched with surprise as Jim Pehico utilized the playing field to send shrapnel into Alfred’s ship, severely damaging it and incapacitating them. She nodded and gave a thumbs up

“You’ve done well, Jim. I will accept you into my employment starting at 60 thousand credits a cycle. Continue to prove yourself and that rate will increase, you’ve certainly got the potential to do as such.”

It was coming out of her own pay, giving him a greater than 25% cut of it was generous to her. She did have to maintain this ship after all and fuel it, as well as providing food, drink, and shelter. All he really had to do was sit in the cockpit and do as he was told, no true bills he had to pay for at all! Should he choose to join her on adventures though, he’d certainly get bonuses and extra pay

 

[Jim Pehico]

Jim smiled. That’s a good payday. It made him wonder who this Draco Miles lady really was and how she had come to all this money. But where and how doesn’t really matter to him as long as it keeps flowing.

“You keep the credits rolling and you got yourself a pilot.” Jim said with a smile.

However on the other hand he does like to know what he’s getting himself into. “So what are you exactly? A mercenary? Perhaps a dignitary? No… no bureaucrat is going to walk the lower levels without guards. I’m stumped. Considering you were interested in my combat skill and evasive flying more than anything I’m assuming I’m going to be doing that often?”

 

[Draco Miles]

“Fairly often, yes. I am an apprentice of Countess Belasko, for House Io. You may have heard of the Planet of Khemost and its ancient Sith vault”

Draco spoke while reaching behind her, parting her cloak so he could see 1: the rest of her armor, starting with a skin tight black undersuit that was just thick enough to where he could barely make out the features of her body, her armor was also colored blue and gold along the hardplates with some weird device on the right side of her hip that was cylindrical in shape. Reaching behind her, she pulled out the hilt of a lightsaber, much longer than usual though, before igniting it. Two red blades extending from either end of the sword showed her allegiance as Sith

“And I am one who wields the Force”