Walking the Coals

[Kalporra Djacq]

// Location: Kashyyyk, Kkowir Forest, Myyydril Caverns \\​

// Objective: Meet informant + hunt Mandalorian stragglers \\​

// Equipment: Robes; energy bow; lightwhip \\​

// Tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"] \\​

. . .​

The fire that had been set on Kashyyyk was now, finally, petering out. What was left were a scattered collection of coals, a handful of individuals left behind by the offending party: The Mandalorians. Few and far between, or as far as the Knights Obsidian knew, but there nonetheless.

And that would not do. A firewalk was in order to clean up after the disaster, once and for all.

Kalporra wondered on thing at present above all else. What was a Mandalorian? It had been explained to her multiple times during her training thus far, but Kalporra just hadn't been bothered to form her own opinion with the information given to her. But suddenly there was something familiar since coming under the Knights Obsidian's care:

Hunting.

The anticipation warmed her cold heart. And then that was that - as far as the warden-squire was concerned, the Mandolorians were a plague upon the Silver homeworld to be eradicated, pure and simple. So if the Knights wanted to sic her onto a few left planetside after the recent Battle of Kashyyyk, who was she to disobey orders? Never mind that she only agreed to the terms to feed her starved, felony vice, but maybe that had been why she had been selected for such a mission in the first place. In either case, she had grown instantly disappointed upon finding out that she was assigned a pathfinding chaperone.

Currently, Kal sat tucked between two posts holding up the hut's porch awning, leaning back on one with her feet propped against the other as she sat balanced on the top rail of the half fence. Her red-velvet-trimmed hood was pulled up to obscure her profile to refugee passersby as she idly played with her lightwhip, coiling it around a gloved hand and tugging lightly. Discomfort, she had long since found on Christophsis, strangely made the waiting that much more bearable.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Kalporra Flynn"]​

Kashyyyk. Only now did she realize that it had been a good long while since she'd last been there to visit one of her best friends, Josh Dragonsflame. It seemed that upon her return, that was one particular friendship that was not what it had been anymore. Jason had grown up, and now it was Josh and her twin sister that were close, leaving her mostly on the sidelines. She couldn't blame either of them though; it had been her own idea to try to kill herself and replace herself with Madalena, not knowing that she had pulled her sister from an alternate dimension instead. A complicated story, that one was.

And here she was now, not because of her friend, but because her mission to destroy the Mandalorians had never actually ended. She had been on Eshan. She had been on Taanab. She had been on Mandalore. From all these places, to varying degrees of success, she'd effectively played the part in pushing them back, shrinking their territory and galactic grasp. But it was not enough. It was never enough. Where one Mandalorian was removed from existence, two more tuna cans raised their head.

This time, they raised more than two heads, and they'd raised them on Kashyyyk – the capital planet of the Silvers, who were directly affiliated with the Confederacy. To be sent here to take care of the stragglers, it was a treat that Scherezade had not expected to receive at any point. It brought a smile to her face.

There was a contact she was to find first though, a newcomer to the Knights Obsidian who went by the name of Kalporra Flynn. It was odd for Scherezade, to no longer know instantly who joined the Knights and when. But with her work so busy around the Ministry of Secrets, and still masquerading as a Knight to keep her cover, there wasn't too much time to keep the small details in. Still though, if they'd chosen the other one for this mission, it meant that Scherezade had high hopes for her.

Pausing her speeder by the place they'd agreed to meet at, Scherezade removed her helmet and grinned wide. "Mandalorian kilmobile ready!" she announced herself.

 

[Kalporra Djacq]

// Tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"] \\​

. . .​

Under any other circumstances, Kal would have been put off by Scherezade's...flare.

But these weren't any other circumstances. And so she even felt game enough to join in.

Swinging her legs off the top rail and twisting her torso, she landed in the dirt below. A short drop she walked gracefully out of like the practiced escape artist she had become. "Pathfinder deWinter, I presume?" she asked, taking down her hood to reveal a dangerous glint already in her eyes and a twisted smirk on her lips. The question was entirely rhetorical; Kal was familiar enough with Scherezade's appearance thanks to a holo embedded in her KO file. "Let's play then, shall we?"

All the while, Kal had been approaching the back of the neon bike, slowly winding her unignited light whip off of her hand. With a few flexes of her fingers, feeling had come back into the whole appendage. Now, she stooped down to eye-level with the hollow tire, where she passed the tip of the metal weapon through the circle. Kicking one of her legs over the speeder, she pulled the whip through, tied it to the hilt over her lap, and scooted closer to her superior.

Very crude, yes, but some semblance of safety. Kal was lucky that the wheel itself didn't spin on this model, but the thread running along on the outside of it. Leave it to a sadistic serial to think that far out of the norm.

"Where to? I'll time you."

Let the fun begin.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Kalporra Flynn"]​

Scherezade grinned from ear to ear and nodded as her name was spoken. The other woman seemed in the mood to play as well – and that was perfect. Going on missions with overly serious partners tended to be a drag, and a long and drawn out one as well. There was pleasure to be taken in removing Mandalorians from existence, and that pleasure increased when one had a partner that showed to be of the same mind about it.

"About twelve miles north-west of here," Scherezade answered as she began to put her helmet back. Normally, she loathed being touched by people. More than once had her best friend attempted to hug her only to be nearly brutally murdered in return. But when it came to her speeder, when she had to take people on it, she knew she couldn't be her shiny normal self about it. The speeder was technically not built to take other people on it, but Scherezade was nothing if not stubborn, though having someone behind her meant that they pretty much had to hold onto her, or fall to their deaths. Especially with how she drove.

"Start the timing, but then hold on super-tight," she warned as she glanced back, the mischievous gleam in her eyes hard to miss, "this speeder was built for speed and disregarded anything safety-related."

That was pretty much all one could say. Wasting no more time, the two set off.

Driving through the jungles of Kashyyyk was a wild ride. Scherezade hadn't done it before, always opting on taking locals taxis when she needed to get from place to place, or landed her ship within walking distance. But this… This was amazing. She veered her vehicle in sharp and dangerous turns, the speeder sometimes almost touching the ground because of how sudden and pointy her directions were. Though, for the most part, the path was pretty much clear for them, the small holomap in the front of them showing the beeps and colors that they needed for information regarding their surroundings.

It was into the third part of their trip though, that they almost came across a dangerous roadblock; a tree had fallen.

"HOLD ON TIGHT!" Scherezade screamed as she pushed the button. If the sharp turns hadn't been enough by now, this time, the speeder jumped into the air. Ten feet, that was all her baby could do, but it did them very well, and Scherezade and Kalporra leaped over the giant tree trunk like a unicorn prancing above the clouds.

Their landing was perfect, but seconds later the speeder came to a stop as Scherezade released the pedals and sighed. "Wasn't sure I could land it right," she explained a she took her helmet off. They'd only been riding for a handful of minutes by now if her senses were right, "but I think I need a bit of a break," she apologized with a smile.

"So you're a Warden, uh?" came the next question. Small talk. Her sister was teaching her how to. She hoped she wasn't being awkward.

 

[Kalporra Djacq]

// Tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"] \\​

. . .​

Leaning back on her hands braced on the top of the wheel almost as soon as they came to a stop was all Kalporra could do to to not fall sideways off the purple speeder. "Uh huh," she managed to mutter up to the sky, hoping Scherezade could hear. "Sure." A question came next. Kal leveled her head, feeling her lungs sufficiently refilled with oxygen. "Just a squire, yes," she confirmed, voice much more even now. "How-how open has the KO been about me?" She had been curious for a while now just what was on file publicly about her, but she had never braved asking the Masters. Now though seemed as good of a chance as any.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Kalporra Flynn"]​

How open had the Knights Obsidian been about her? Scherezade grinned. That was a question that should have been addressed at the KO themselves; but the Squire in front of her had no way of guessing that she wasn't. Scherezade belonged to the Ministry of Secrets and through there, had access to many things that normal grunts did not. Her entire bit about being a Pathfinder was nothing more than a clever cover up.

"Not much," she said, "Age, height, weight, placement. Former missions. That sort of stuff."

Glowing green eyes now moved up, taking the other woman in. "Anything you're hiding that I should know about?" Scherezade teased, grinning, "have you undergone the mandatory interrogation at the hands of the Ministry of Secrets yet? They're vicious. Never thought I'd survive mine."

 

[Kalporra Djacq]

// Tag: [member="Scherezade deWinter"] \\​

. . .​

Her nose bridge crinkled in a grimace and her head drew back on her neck at the mention of that shadowy agency. "Earlier than most," answered Kal. She agreed with the brunette's assessment, of course; they had been vicious. Depending on Scherezade's past, Kal had very much been more deserving of the ministry agents' aggression than her. That interrogation was firstly an assessment of a murderess' capacity to serve anything but herself, but it also later fulfilled the Knights' admittance requirement.

Almost immediately, she regretted asking the question. Of course, she wasn't nervous to make the confession all over again - she had already given it to the MoS, and it had gotten around to the other Confederate agencies. Surely then, if the KO supported Kal, regardless of if they should or shouldn't, one in their ranks tattling or thinking badly of her would not change their minds. The worst thing that would happen would be a reassignment. So she added easily:

"I've hated humans and near-humans a long time. I like hurting them because of that. That's all...you need to know."

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

[member="Kalporra Flynn"]​

Ah. Scherezade made a mental note to hunt the files down. If her mission partner really had been interrogated by others in the Ministry, she wanted to know what it entailed. Sometimes people liked to get wild with stories about the birds, and some of it was out right made up. More than anything, it was an entertaining thing for the Sithling.

But then came the remark about hating humans and near humans, and Scherezade was confused. She inhaled again, looking at the other woman.

"But you're human yourself," she pointed out. The scent was rarely wrong. That still, explained nothing. However, Scherezade couldn't really care too much about it. If Kalporra wanted to attack her, she could defend herself. If she didn't, they were gucci.

"Does this mean you wanna work the carving knife after we find our Mandos?" she grinned, removing one of the knives from her body and offering it to her hilt-first.