[center][h1][color=fff200][b][i]CORELLIA[/i][/b][/color][/h1][/center] [center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keYvZU3xTzQ[/youtube][/center] Corellia, the great shipyards... Where in all the galaxy could you find a place like this? So much production and resources, and so much crime. The planet was more factory than any place to live, but if you wanted to work here, you needed to live here, and if you didn't work AND you lived here, then you did crime here. There was very little between, apart from the infrastructure to [i]support[/i] the lives of so many engineers, software programmers, mechanics, scrappers, labor forces, and so on. You still needed [i]suppliers[/i] for tools, food, living accommodations, maintenance for all these things, clean-up crews, etc. The list goes on, and this is the surface to maybe down to perhaps...the sewer levels. But...Corellia, like any planet with huge technological works built upon it, has layers. Your basements have sub-basements that were themselves simply basements, and below them maintenance areas and mining facilities for the abundant resources of the planet. Somewhere, amidst all of these places, beyond the criminal hideouts and squatter holes, in forgotten stretches of ductwork and cut-off abandoned rooms...lies Singe. Wherever Singe goes, this is where she inevitably ends up, an obscure and hard-to-reach location that not even maintenance droids can find. And if they do, she will reprogram them to think and report otherwise, that there is nothing here, that nobody is there at the bottom of the world or in the walls or somewhere nestled between floors. It is the way she lives, and has done for a few years now. As a silvery-haired woman - a Sephi - it becomes easy for her to be a target for people who have less-than-savory plans for her. They were not thea threat. In her work as a Slicer, there could be any number of people who could want to put her out of business for good, owing to the losses incurred by her actions. They were not the threat. In her circles, plenty of violence could erupt at a moment's notice, leaving many dead in their wake from over-zealous actions. Even [i]this[/i] was not the threat. The Empire was the threat. Always the threat. Always... All those other things, she accepted the responsibility for the dangers, lived her life on that understandable edge. There was never a problem in her life, living that way. The Imperials, though... They were a whole 'nother story, and Singe...she thought big. She thought of making life harder for them in underground ways. And for a while, it worked, but...they bit back, and it hurt...alot. They changed the game, and now she was here, like this, or on other planets in similar positions. She would never again let that happen, and she would make them pay. [i]All of them[/i] pay, every last Imperial piece of shit. They [i]must[/i] pay. There was nothing else, except these acts. And so, even from isolation, she would set about the tasks of others to break the Empire with her data manipulations and meticulous plans, paying for every step she herself could not take with their own money. And with every deed done, she would laugh, she would cry, she would drink, and she would zone out on the network. And then, she would start it all over again. One day, however, something had changed. The Rebels, already emboldened by their past victories, smashed the center of power that the Empire held onto so dearly. Their ultimate weapon, destroyed. Their flagship, crashed and burned. Their Lord Vader, dead. Their Emperor, gone. They had broken the back of the Empire, and in the ensuing chaos caused it to splinter. There was much celebration throughout the galaxy, and even in her hole, Singe had drank happily and laughed at the miserable fate of those she hated the most. But...it wasn't over yet. Time passed, and her work continued, but with the Imperials as broken as they were, it was no longer quite so easy to push them into situations, to set them up for disaster. They no longer felt safe and secure, a fact which made her smile, but because of this, procedure was no longer followed, and things would have to change. Singe looked around her dark area with her right amber eye, scanning around the area bathed in dim light. [i][color=f7941d]I'll have to get out there. I don't want to...but I have to kill them all. Every last one of them must pay for what they did to me...[/color][/i] Even she knew that this was a disproportionate response to the situation, but there was a deep and empty gulf where any joy once resided. Even on the reggedy edge, life use to be so much more for her, and now no longer. The stench of the Empire must be scrubbed from existence, like her personal dossier from computers. So, gathering her things, she contacted...well, he was friendly, but not what she called a friend. He was a Tynnan, and they were the most common sensical species in the galaxy. She caught him on hypernet, obviously noy local, but perhaps enough so for a quick pick-up. [color=f7941d]"Goggles, you there?"[/color] [b]"Oh, hey! If it ain't my voice from the darkness! What's on the agenda for today, huh? A bit of spice smuggling with Imperial data wedged near my forcefield generator? Dropping off a load of mercenaries into a cantina to intercept some shore leavers?"[/b] [color=f7941d]"I need transport."[/color] [b]"Sure, sure! How many? Or how much? And where to?"[/b] [color=f7941d]"I don't [i]know[/i] where. Somewhere closer to the hub of activity, underground or otherwise. As for who...just me."[/color] [b]"Whoa, hey. You mean, you wanna [i]meet?[/i] I thought you didn't DO direct."[/b] [color=f7941d]"I don't. Didn't. I- ...it's complicated. Things are changing. I have to move on. I need to think. I need to be able to without worrying about whether I'm a stowaway or not. Could you? I mean, can you?"[/color] There was a pause, as she knew the furry little creature was weighing things in his mind. Tynnan were small water-mammal beings, not great fighters, per se. Goggles himself claimed to go on runs with people sometimes, with a Dug, of all things, but his people didn't take unnecessary risks, because it simply wasn't good sense. If you started a fight on his ship while in transit, he didn't fight you. He locked you in a room, turned off the dampeners and gravity control, then spun the ship around until you were beaten senseless by the ship itself. He was a smart little rodent. [b]"Am I gonna be in trouble 'cause I know your face?"[/b] [color=f7941d]"No more than you would for working with me. The Empire's in tatters, but I need to pull on those strings until they unravel entirely. So, can you pick me up on Corellia? Maybe take me somewhere to plan my next move? I need to get a feel for the galaxy again, breathe some new air, stuff like that."[/color] [b]"I can do it. Just, you know, pay me properly."[/b] [color=f7941d]"I always do. I'm already on my way to your usual pick-up spot. Don't keep me waiting."[/color] [b]"Yeah, yeah. I know."[/b] She was afraid, honestly afraid, but...she would still do it. She had to, until the job was done, and only then would she allow herself to rest... It was quite alot of crawling and slipping into places, unlocking doors and locking them again, sneaking through corridors whether they were disused or not, and for a while she was even on some sort of gang territory, though she couldn't care less. Singe was more capable than the riff-raff. Even before the incident, she could handle herself in a gun fight. Fact is, the first grunt of something even [i]minorly[/i] aggressive, she took out her gun and fired at it. There was no time for niceties, right now. By the time she stepped out of an Employees Only area, ignoring the guard shouting at her to get out of the work area if she didn't belong there, she expected to see that freighter incoming at the designated landing pad. The Crimson Fang was a decently-refurbished YT-1930 Corellian Freighter. It was like an old pet come home to master after a long journey. One of the few symetrical designs out of the lot, it [i]apparently[/i] started out as a wreck that the Tynnan picked up at a low price and started doing jobs to...basically return to spaceworthyness. It had guns, decent hyperdrive, shields, ident-faking device, plenty of cargo and crawl spaces, and most of all...it was actually [i]clean[/i]. It was also [i]late[/i]. Singe felt uncomfortably exposed, and that wasn't because her shoulders were bare. She hadn't been [i]out[/i] in a while, and although there weren't any obvious signs of bounty hunters incoming, the wait made her more and more paranoid as time went by. Finally...the cargo ship landed and the ramp dropped down, revealing the small brown-haired mammal that was Meyran Tufts, or Goggles, as he was called, because of the Occular Enhancer used to cope with his less-than-great eyesight. He stood there, light-repeating rifle in his hands, looking up at her, letting out a whistle between his buck teeth. [b]"No [i]wonder[/i] you were in hiding."[/b] [color=f7941d]"We can't all be small pudgey critters like you."[/color] [b]"Ain't [i]that[/i] the truth. Might be more peaceful, though."[/b] [color=f7941d]"Let's get going, alright?"[/color] [b]"No problem. Uhhh...maybe you wanna use the shower a bit?"[/b] Singe blinked. The little guy had a sense of smell like you wouldn't believe. [color=f7941d]"I...erm...yeah, thanks..."[/color] They were on their way to Nar Shaddaa.