Elite and Sep
The black vessel dropped out of hyperspace, a stone's throw away from the station. Koren nodded at the pilot, transmitting the necessary codes to the crew aboard the station. He then proceeded to turn around and walk towards the main ramp where he’d meet Sirka loaded out and ready to go. “Now I’m not entirely sure how it worked with your previous jobs, droids will disembark first. Then me, then you. I know you may be used to going first on protection jobs however I doubt many of them had a reputation of the same calibre, not to blow my own horn or anything. Why, this time in this
cutest little restaurant on Canto Blight, I didn’t pay for a single thing. It was good too.”
The ramp descended and they were welcomed to the smell of oil and machinery. Stormtroopers stood at either side of the walkway, a black skull painted on their shoulders. Koren raised his arms taking it all in. “Gentlemen. I’ve come to speak to your boss-” He turned, ignoring the squad of Commando Droids that had positioned themselves at either side of the walkway. “-This is my attaché. She’ll be present for all of the meetings.”
He placed his hands down by his belt, using his shoulders to keep his jacket open. “So, shall we begin?”
Much as Sirka had expected, Onyx had no trouble repairing the E-Web in time for their arrival. Sirka had spent most of her time rigging the power supply to her backpack. Both it and the weapon were far heavier than what she had been using, but they were nothing she could not carry with her build. She could definitely imagine situations where she would want to use her normal repeater, particularly if she had to be more mobile, but they were going to a space station. She could not think of a better place for a fast-firing blaster cannon than tight corridors.
Sirka stepped down the ramp just behind Koren, holding onto her weapon loosely with a makeshift sling over her shoulder than she had managed to rig up shortly before they landed. It had taken about fifteen minutes to calibrate the power supply alone, so it was not a weapon she could just pick up when surprised. It was not terribly ergonomic to hold in her hands, so she would definitely need to do some further modifications later on, when she had time.
With her towering figure right behind Koren, Sirka applied her practiced art of being intimidating, but not outright threatening. Her fingers were not near her weapon’s trigger, or buttons, in this case. However, her posture made her seem even taller and more imposing than usual. She flicked out her nose-tongues, though she had to admit some annoyance at the fact that they were surrounded by stormtroopers. Their armor was sealed, and it made it difficult to pick up their scents. Fortunately, officers and other “important” Imperials were rarely in the same kind of armor. She gave a brief, subtle nod down to Koren, ready to move on.
An Imperial Officer approached, he wore stormtrooper armour on all but his head. The entire outfit painted black, making him differ from the rest of the stormtroopers with an obvious scar from combat covering his right eye down his face. He was obviously the one in charge of the situation. At least some form of stormtrooper commander, sometime in his history at the very least.
“Koren Graeff. Welcome aboard, to what do we owe this pleasure?”
Koren chuckled slightly. “I’m here to speak to your boss. There’s some important details that we need to discuss.”
“Such as?”
“Such as the fact that had it not been for me, this lovely little outfit would still be under the command of the Empire.”
“Lies, we purged our existence from the Imperial Systems, Agent Relek saw to that.”
“Yes well this Agent…
Relek was it? Is apparently no Criminal. There are mentions of this station in multiple places in the Imperial System. It wasn’t easy to purge.”
The stormtroopers all raised their guns at Koren on cue, the droids at the ramp all moved into a ready position. Koren didn’t flinch. “Then why don’t we just kill
you? Then our secret is safe.”
Koren shrugged. “You could kill me, that’s for sure. Would your secret be safe? No. Not really, and I guarantee you’d live to regret the decision. For anything else other than the fact that this ship-” he indicated to the
Nightfury “-Has enough droids aboard really mess up your day. So I’d advise you take me to see your boss.”
The captain flinched slightly “Wait here.”
Koren turned to look at Sirka. “Diplomacy in action here, while we wait… how’s the new weapon?”
“Heavy, about like I expected.” Sirka replied. Unlike her normal repeater, it was too bulky to attach anywhere on her backpack, so she had to carry it around at all times. “It’s not ergonomic, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with some scrap metal and a spanner. Biggest limit I see is the power supply. From what I’ve read on these things, the power generator has a real tendency to explode if the power feed into the cannon isn’t properly regulated. It takes fifteen or twenty minutes of calibrations to get the power supply working on its own, so you don’t need someone else to manage the power. That means I can’t just pick it up and go every time I turn on the power supply. You figure the Empire would have been able to afford better quality for their soldiers, wouldn’t you? ‘Course, they do like to cheap out on their people’s safety, don’t they? Maybe I can understand why these people here would want to split from them.”
With another glance at their surroundings, Sirka flicked out her nose-tongues to grab the scents that the officer had left behind and figure out his emotional state. Figuring out how he was feeling could give her a better sense of what they should be expecting. The right scents could even help her tell if someone was lying.
After a few moments to take in the scents, Sirka leaned in a bit closer to Koren, speaking quietly. “He was nervous. On-edge. Your little display definitely rattled him. Don’t think he was lying though. Didn’t smell quite
that kind of nervous.”
Koren shook his head and raised a finger. “Never overestimate a threat.” He moved his finger from a shushing position on Sirka to the ship. “If they were worried about the threat of extra forces attacking they’d be watching the ramp or the ship right now, instead they’re watching us. What that lets me know is that they aren’t nervous about that, they’re nervous about me. To be fair I can see why, I’m not seen doing a lot of my own dirty work these days so-” Koren shrugged. “-This is a bit of an oddity, that I’m interacting with people while doing my work.”
The Captain returned and indicated in a direction out of the hangar. “The boss will see you now, however he insists that your security remains here.”
Koren nodded and looked at the droids. “Commander, stay here and secure. You’ll do fine.” With that he turned around to face the Captain blocking his way. “Excuse me.”
“All of your security-” The Captain pointed at Sirka.
“She’s an attaché. Amazingly astute with figures, numbers and smells. She goes where I goes. No exceptions.” The Captain crumbled and then lead them down the hangar, within moments they entered a dimly lit room, at the head of an old table sat a large human male. Obviously overweight, sweating with nervousness and worry. Though also a sense of defiance, much like everyone he had dealt with so far.
The Captain bowed. “Mr.Koren Graeff, your grace.” Koren without so much of a introduction moved to sit down, he picked up a piece of fruit from the centre of the table and took a bite from it.
“So glad to finally meet you, it’s been a long time coming Firsk.”
Sirka immediately gave up on finding a seat the moment they were lead into the room. She was more likely to break them than to find any degree of comfort, so she settled for standing alongside Koren. That, of course, had the added benefit of making her seem even more imposing to someone sitting, and kept her more able to react quickly to any sudden danger.
From the moment Sirka entered the room, she was flicking out her tongues at regular intervals. It allowed her to get a regular, ongoing picture of how the former Imperial officers were reacting to anything she or Koren did, of course, but doing it regularly also made it seem like more of a natural reflex for her species than something she was doing for an intentional purpose. Koren Graeff himself did not know what species she was, so it was pretty much impossible that anyone else around them would have any notion of how sensitive her nose actually was. If she detected any hostility from their hosts, then she would be able to react accordingly. Hopefully, now that Koren knew the extent of what she could sense, he would be able to pick up on cues from her so that she would not have to announce it to him aloud.
Firsk, a former Commander in the Imperial Navy sat at the head of the table. A droid entered the room bringing in food, placed it before him and he licked his lips as he picked up a piece of meat. “Mr.Graeff-” He chewed for a moment “-Of what do I owe the pleasure?” He was annoyed, even Koren could see that. Self-important people often became annoyed when they were disturbed at times where they had certain things to do.
“You owe me a favour, I want your factory to work for me.” Koren spoke very matter of factly, there wasn’t any malice in his voice, though the change in Firsks demeanour to anger was obvious to anyone who could read body language.
“You what? And what exactly makes you think that?”
Koren raised his arms to indicate their surroundings. “Without me, you wouldn't have any of this. A Moff would have been here months ago with a firing squad ready to take you out for desertion. So as far as I see it, there’s a bit of a debt situation going on here.”
There was no question of the commander’s rage, though Sirka still paid close attention to his scent regardless, in case there were any surprises. Her nose could detect subtle changes from the commander and his officer, so she kept her eyes moving between everything else, even the droid. Her black eyes made it difficult to determine exactly what she was focusing on to the average observer.
“We never asked-” Koren raised his hand to stop the commander.
“You didn’t need to ask, the point is that I did something for you, which means that you should do something for me. If you aren’t in a charitable mood-” Koren shrugged. “-Then I guess we’ll just need to go anywhere and leave you out here all alone, without any business or protection. I fully understand.” Koren turned to Sirka. “That seems to be what the Commander wants isn’t it? To be left out here all alone without protection?”
Sirka could see where this was going, she believed. It was coercion, then. Perfectly fine by her, and absolutely not something she was a stranger to. She just needed to follow Koren’s lead and complement the threats he made using that constant, ever-so-imposing presence she possessed. She leaned her head forward, bringing her just a bit closer to the commander without moving her hands or making any other overtly aggressive moves. “Indeed. And I think he doesn’t realize
exactly how much protection we provide. How...capable we are.”
Koren raised his hand at Sirka. “Now Commander, I hope that you don’t take that as a threat from myself, I deal in information not
blood after all. I’m just saying it’s a dangerous galaxy. There are all kinds of outlaws running around these days since the fall of the Empire. As you know only too well, otherwise you wouldn’t of went into hiding.”
The commander coughed uncomfortably. “This is a lot to think about, and I shall be in touch, however for now I have to decline your very...
polite offer.” The commander worked hard to hide it, but he was worried. Even Koren couldn’t have been confident in his analysis of the commanders behaviour. Either way, he stood up.
“I hope you don’t mind then, but I’ll return to my ship. I expect we’ll be well compensated for our time, and have it refuelled before we leave?”
The commander waved his hand. “Yes, yes. Of course.”
“Excellent. It may take us some time to get underway, just so you are aware. The ship isn’t as young as it used to be.” He stretched himself, feigning pain in his joints. “It’s not the only thing.” Koren chuckled, as the commander imitated the chuckle very nervously. “Thankyou for your time Farski.” He indicated towards the door. “Sirka, if you’d please lead the way.”
Sirka was, of course, quick to follow Koren’s instruction. However, she still made sure to take in a large sample of the commander’s scent as she started to turn, in addition to those she had been taking every time he responded to Koren. He was obviously nervous, but what she looked for was the more subtle hints. Chemicals his body could release instinctively that might reveal some kind of deception. Behind all of the polite words, the subtext of the meeting was obvious to everyone. Koren was leveraging his influence over the commander, so some kind of violent betrayal from the former Imperials was not out of the question. Her job was to protect him, so she would need to be alert to that kind of danger.
Sirka lifted up her weapon with one hand, but kept the other closest to Koren free as she lead the way out of the room. Although, she kept herself quite close to him, almost to the point that she was touching him. She was alert to danger, and if she detected it, then she wanted to be able to quickly put herself between it and him.
Koren followed Sirka out of the hallway, heading towards the main hangar where they had docked. He scanned around, and as he looked left he noticed an open hangar with a very
specific ship in it. A circular flight pod, three angled wings. Koren paused and tapped Sirka on the shoulder. “Is that what I think it is? I think that’s what I think it is.” He looked her dead in the eye. “This station is something we need. If we have that-” he pointed at the ship. “-That’s all the bargaining power I’ll ever need on the Empire. I’ll get a free pass.”
Sirka observed the ship as Koren pointed it out to her. She did not have the background to really be able to recognize the significance of the vessel, but it was obviously some sort of TIE fighter. She leaned her head over and replied in a low voice. “A special TIE fighter? I’m up for whatever plan you have in mind, whenever it’s time.”
Continuing on they returned to the hangar and walked up the ramp of the
Nightfury. Once inside the vessel Koren took a seat in the lounge, far more comfortable than it normally would have been. “You’re handling yourself nicely Sirka, remember. In negotiations the most important thing is that you hold all the cards.” He leaned himself back.
“If things go well today, I may have a more… permanent position available for you.”
Sirka did not feel quite as comfortable trying to take a seat as Koren, though there were at least some that looked like they could hold her. Regardless, she did at least prop her weapon up against the nearest wall, and leaned herself up against it as well. “I have experience being the big, scary monster to back up my employer’s suggestions, threats, and the like. And to make them look more reasonable by comparison. If this does become something permanent, though...well, I’ll say that I do have a better ‘acting range’ than just that. Just tell me if you ever want me to take a different approach. For now, though, I’d like to focus on the task at hand. I don’t like to get caught up worrying about the future when there’s still important things to focus on here and now. Don’t want to get distracted. You want those special TIEs, right? Did you already have a plan in mind for that? I’m guessing you prefer non-violent solutions. You probably didn’t need my nose to tell that those two were frightened, but that could make them dangerous.”
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