Shadow of the Crimson Turtle

"Impossible." Vin says in stunned disbelief at Sovia's words.

"I have seen it." She raises her hands. "Improbable as it seems."

"We're skrogged." Ceph's skin takes on an anxious mauve tinge. "Any kinda deception is out the window. An altercation would be even more dangerous than it already was." he looks around at the others. "What do we do?"

Nils shakes his head in disbelief. "How many of you are there running around?! I thought force users were a rare breed! Sovia, Leb, if we wanted to capture one of you, how would we go about doing it?"

Sovia smirks at Nils. "Better you burn a hole in your midrif and lie down than try Nils, cut out the pain anguish and effort in between." She breathes deeply. Considering the wisdom of the words. "There were some who used to specialise in taking down Jedi. The sith would train people toshield their minds from intrusion and detection. Then some were droids. Their mind and intentions were already shielded. Still, the best weapon was known to be overwhelming firepower, not being afraid to take losses in the process." She looks to Ceph. "The wisest course of action would be to avoid confrontation in the open as you said. They will not be swayed by job offers though. A false warning about the ship they embark on perhaps. Or much as it pains me after all this effort, we let them leave."

"We could just blast them out of the sky."   Vin suggests very calmly.  "It won't get us any more information but at least they can't be involved further. And I'm not saying get our ship involved.  Some explosives in the right place could cause the ship to rapidly decompress.  Something simple."   He was suggesting a very cold blooded approach, but the great good may be served by such an act of cruelty.  "And before you ask, we can provide incentive discreetly to the...  two?... other passengers."   He couldn't remember the number Nils had said but it wasn't that many.  This wasn't about nobility or honor; this was the cost of stopping terrorists.  The Empire pushed hard solutions for hard problems in the past.  Some were quiet reminders and some lived on in infamy.

"Nice circularity to that but these two probably aren't the masterminds here, hey? Blowing them up would just put us back to square one. Actually, Sovia's point about that mind training makes me think, even if we could capture them somehow, would we even be able to get any information out of them? So if we can't influence or coerce them directly, that only leaves indirect approaches... Don't blow up the ship they're due to travel on, but sabotage it or disrupt it somehow. Stop them leaving but in such a way they don't know we're onto them. Ah, but they could just get on another flight, and we won't know where that one's going. So we could just try and beat them to Corea, follow them discreetly and see what they do when they're there. Or we could just forget about them and do the salvage job, probably lots more money to be made there anyway?"

"Fine, let them go then.  But I don't want to hear another word about the terrorists then."  Vin was getting angry. Red flaring along his neck.  He wanted to say, "I let you use that card against me only once," but instead just conceded, "Let's just wait and see whatever frakking requirements this next goram job has."  There was some anger leeching through his control.  He could see some worry and concern growing on a few faces.  Vin was really torn. Each moment became increasingly more difficult to keep his composure. So he left them to debate their petty bullshit walking down the boarding ramp to the outside of the ship.  He paced away to fore landing strut. 'On the one hand, he'd expected Drael to push some weight around, but he was starting to see the man in a different light.  Maybe the man was more a coward than he gave him credit for....' Vin sighed. He was just emotionally compromised, and starting to see a conspiracy growing in anything. 'Drael wasn't a coward. He's just picking his battles better.'  Vin was starting to feel like the coward. Vin honestly didn't think it was a good idea to get so involved with so few options and approaches. The more they'd come up with a plan; the worse it had sounded. So in a way they were doing exactly what he wanted to do. 'Then why was he so angry?'   They'd really hit a sour spot with these terrorists.  He tried not to think about it.  It gave Vin a cold sinking feeling any time he pictured the horrors from those days.  There were plenty of other bad memories in his life but that one stole away his courage, and made him a young boy again.  He slammed his fist again one of the landing struts.  Pain radiated in his hand. Maybe.  He didn't feel it.

Ceph’s eyes widen and jump to the rest of the crew as Vin explodes, seemingly out of nowhere. He clears his throat in an effort to break the awkward tension that fills the air like sweltering humidity and turns to Drael. “Uhm... do you maybe want to go talk to him?”

Nodding, Drael stands up, and without speaking turns and follows the old soldier out of the ship. As he gets to the ramp he sees Vin standing  near the bottom. "Buddy, you ok? Well obviously not, but you know you can talk it out with me, right? Before you do though, take a deep breath, if you've got concerns you aren't alone. I've been weighing it up, I didnt want to rush into something but this gig is getting more dangerous by the second, I've got to say I'm not sure we are doing the right thing." The little pilot takes another step down towars his friend. "We can bail, if you dont like the job, we'll walk away. I'll admit I quite like these people but that doesn't mean I have a death wish, and you are right I dont want to risk the ship over it either." 

"IT'S NOT THE JOB, DRAEL!"   Vin is shaking. There is a sob in his voice.  Anger and hatred and fear driving him just curl up in a ball. He fights the urge though.  Vin tries to think out his response.  Several moments of silence race as he keeps looking for a way to talk to his friend.  A shallow breath gives him a small reprieve from the panic within him.  He drags in deeper trying to move past the drowning feeling in his lungs. "They killed them.  And they're gong to get away again .  We have to let them.  I have to let them.  It's suicide otherwise."   The hopelessness and tears well out. Sobs pour from his words and eyes. "If I had known in the cafe,  I wouldn't be having to worry about these three fucking jedi washouts telling me what can and can't be done.  These assholes would be dead." The anger is misplaced but still coming.  Vin's facade shatters and he crumples down slowly sliding along the landing strut until gravity stops tugging and his knees are half way toward his stomach.  Vin's head shows a clear picture. A fine woman in her black and red uniform.  She has brown flowing hair with blonde highlights. She has a beautiful smile and the violet lipstick provides a distinct look with her matching eyeliner. 'Mother.'   The tears keep coming.  Years of repression and training and duty and honor tearing his world apart. He did not hear any more of Drael words, comforting or cunning, cross or calming, they were drowned out up the blood pumping through his ears and the flood pouring from his eyes.

Sovia sits in her meditation, mind considering all the options, seemingly unaware of Vin's outburst. She mumbles softly to herself as she lets her mind seek wisdom in the Force. "Passion yet Peace Serenity yet Emotion Chaos yet Order There is only the Force Knowledge stagnates without the strength to act  Power blinds  The Force is all things and all things are free in The Force" "We should act against these men. Vin is right, though not in the method. You must deliver a message to get their attention." She looks at Nils.

Drael sits himself down next to his friend, a little higher up the ramp until they seem the same height sat down. Reaching into his jacket's top pocket he removes a slightly bent protein bar, grimacing at the imperfections and straightening it out a bit before breaking it in two and taking a  bite out of one half whilst offering the other to Vin. The offered bar is ignored for a few seconds, and Drael lowers his hand whilst eating in silence. When he has finished his half he looks over at the older man, recognising the signs of someone going through a difficult memory, he stays quiet, although the temptation to bombard him with questions grows in the curious little man quickly. After another few moments he whispers "Don't give up on this lot, and me, I know they are a bit odd , and those force users can't even do mind tricks, which I think is a real shame, but they dont seem bad people  and what they want to do can only be good." Pausing he thinks and continues "Look I know it isn't that your scared, but whatever is getting to you about this job, we can get past it, talk to me pal and I'll do my best to be there for you." He reaches over putting the uneaten half of the protein bar into Vin's hand before heading back up into the ship. "I'm putting on some kafé, dont be too long or I'll give your portion away."

Back inside the ship the pilot walks towards the rest of the group, offering s little shrug as he does "I think he just needs a little time, we need to decide what we are doing. I take it we are going after these guys, with extreme prejudice and lightsaber, but we walk info so we need to take them down and question them. That's what you want right?" He ask looking h towards the other three.

Nils shrugs. "I don't think we'll get much information out of the Cerean whatever we do, but if we want to explode them then I'm OK with that, I suppose we've got that Jedha lead anyway. What sort of message did you have in mind, Sovia? I'd like to not end up being branded a terrorist again is all, I've only just got this ID."

Sovia smiles "Then don't show it anywhere." She breathes deeply. "You are right to be cautious though. We must choose our words carefully to persuade them to go somewhere else."

Ceph shakes his head. "I'm still not convinced that we can persuade them of anything. And trying to take them in a fight here seems like a suicide mission. Maybe we should only try and gather information. Like where they're headed now... what if they're going to Jedha?"

Leb speaks for the first time while all her new companions speak. It was good not to be alone again. But this was so different from the time she spent with her Master. She remember though, the tetachings of Master T'nsusn Chu about dealing with superior enemies.  "I think some of you had pointed the right direction. If their transport is gorunded due to mechanical malfunctions and they happen to hear that we are leaving the spaceport and have room for a couple of passengers. May I suggest that they had to fight for it? Telling them that we already have passage... and make them bribe us in order to make them think it's not just a "happy coincidence" and make them suspicious. Also if one of them is a Force-user as Sovia said, perhaps is better that she and I remain as hidden as possible, at least on the first part of the plan and we could help each other to hide our presence in the Force when they board the ship. Then, once in the space, we can deal with them and obtain the information we need. Both on the bombing and why frame us.  That's an option. The other one is to be more stealthy. Follow their transport and hope that they take us to the mastermind behind all of this. They do not know we are behind their trail so that's some advantage, but that's risky. They could go to a place that we cannot follow...  Wich is sure is that we are not letting this trail go cold. And please, we only know that they left the ship, not that they knew it has a bomb on it or they are the terrorist. We are assuming here. Perhaps the Force-user felt something was wrong and disembark with his friend. I am not saying that we dont assume and plan for the worst, but just keep an open mind in case we are chasing a just another piece of the puzzle, not the solution. " 

All of these options continue to be tossed around, rephrased, and pulled apart. Eventually some sort of consensus is reached. "Okay, so Nils will figure out a way to mechanically sabotage the ship. I'll tag along and get as close as possible to the targets, try and eavesdrop, get whatever information I can. Everyone else will hang back a bit, and if we get an opportunity we can ambush 'em. Otherwise we'll figure out what to do once we have a little more time and intel. Sound good?"

Sovia nods. "Trust in the force to show us the way. And make no plans or decisions of what we will do when we are with them or they will sense it."

As Sovia speaks Drael smirks a little to himself at the reliance on trusting the force. He looks around for someone to make eye contact with, passing Leb and Ceph before settling on Nils, eyebrows raised and the faintest trace of humour on his lips. His hands are still busy working though, and he draws his blaster, checking the charge pack is inserted correctly and showing maximum charge. He holsters the weapon again and tucks his hands in his jacket pockets, before quietly saying "Ready whenever you  are. But we have company coming soon so we might want to have someone here for that."

As if on cue, an elderly Human with a craggy face, white moustache and dark sunglasses enters the docking bay. Vin can see him from his position near the ramp. "Excuse me, are you... Steph?" He asks, glancing down at his datapad to read off the name. In his other hand he carries a large black case.

"Steph?"  Vin looks on incredulously.  The sorrow in his voice couldn't be covered up quickly enough.  Already fatigued from running through his horrors,  there was a confusion clouding his head.   "There is no Steph, here.  Shove off, old timer."   Vin didn't have time for this, so he straightened up and tried to loom over the man.  "NOW... please ."   The 'now' was sharp and bitter   More than this stranger deserved.  He was barely keeping it together though, so he added the 'please' as almost an after thought.

"Alright sonny," the old man laughs, patting Vin on the arm as he walks on by and towards the ramp regardless. "Hello?" He calls up into the ship. "Is this the Khyber Kraken?"

Ceph gives a familia 'here goes nothin' look to the rest of the crew before striding out of the Kraken, taking a few steps down the ramp. "Bingo! I'm guessing you're Sude's man? I'm Ceph, nice to meet you."

"Stanley, but everyone calls me Stan," the old man replies, taking Ceph's hand with an unexpectedly firm grip. "Your friend down there alright? He seems a little on edge." Stan adds as he comes aboard. "You want to show me to your cockpit?"

That old bastard.   'He frakking ignored me?!  Oh.... if I had my bloody blaster, I'd....'   The anger claiming dominion over his fear and memory evaporated the haze and despair.  He'd realized how blood thirsty he'd become.  How shattered his stability had been.  He had been a fool.  Worse yet - every moment since he'd began traveling with these Jedi, years of suppressed training and hatred and suspicion had awakened.  Vin had tried so desperately to acclimate to a civilian lifestyle: 'Find a 'honest job'; live as best he could in the wake of the J-War.' " These aren't the eagle's men. " Vin muttered aloud to himself.  He could end it all; 'walk on their ship with a dead man switch and a few kilos of explosive.  No more terrorists.' No, that was a waste.  He had more to offer this world.  Ridding the world of a few functional conspirators was not worth his life. 'Bringing down an entity that destroyed two governments and the galaxy's way of life. That'd be worth it.' Vin decided.  He wasn't so sure that Ceph's contacts were the right way to go. He'd seen the power of corporate greed and corruption. Hell , he heard of sith-in-hiding running many aspects within the RBS.  Maybe that wasn't a bad thing.  The Empire had been his way of life.  He'd been a proud patriot then, so what had changed?  Hearing about Sith warlords dissolving the borders in grasps for powers even while the J-droids encroaching their territory had been bloody madness.  Perhaps.. it had shaken his faith.  At the time he'd not had a chance to think about it.  It was survive to fight on. Now, he wasn't so sure.  He'd been out of the service for so long, it felt like another life - no - he corrected, 'someone else's life.'

Ceph cringes a little as Stanley mentions his brooding crew mate, but he waves away any concern dismissively. “Rough day, he’ll be fine.” He places a hand on the man’s shoulder as he brings him inside. “Hey everybody, this is Stan. Nils, Drael, wanna help me show him to the cockpit?” His eyes carry a knowing look as he addresses them. 

"Sure thing." Drael beams at Stan and ushers him towards the cockpit. "Walk this way, old timer." The pilot makes space for Stan to enter and keeps a close eye on him as he works.

Stan ambles on through with friendly greetings here and there, before setting his case down on the ground behind the pilot's and co-pilot's chairs. Peering under the front console, he opens up a panel with a hydrospanner so that he can access the circuitry. Once this is done, he opens up the black case he was carrying, which appears to contain a sophisticated dodecahedral tracking device that he begins to connect to the flight computer.

"Talk me through it, buddy. I'd like to know what you are,doing as you do it please. I have to fly this thing and dont want to find out something has changed at the worst possible moment." Drael is friendly enough but clearly determined to have an answer.

Drael's easy going manner quickly gets the old man talking and Stan gladly explains the process in great detail to this eager-to-learn youngster. In fact, he ends up talking for so long that Drael finds it almost impossible to get away from him.

"I can't believe what a great teacher you are, Stan. I feel like I could do this myself if I needed to!" Drael gushes to the old man who replies with a warm chuckle "Ain't all that hard, dont tell the boss i said that though, you met him, that Steph has if you haven't, what sort of a name is Steph anyway?" He questions veering off on a tangent. "Yeah, I dont think Steph likes to talk about it, but of a source of shame if you ask me, sometimes he tries to make him  all him Ceph, which sounds even more strange if you ask me, but I just fly the ship  what do I know." Gently mimicking the older man's style and attitude Drael gets to know him as he works, paying attention and asking rlele any questions about what the man is doing, hoping some of it might be useful I  the future or that Nils can explain it to him at least. After the non-stop back and forth gradually peters out Drael offers the man a drink and sits in the flight chair staring at the older man. "I have to ask about your boss, is he on the level, we aren't going to get gunned down instead if getting paid when we get back are we? You seem like someone who wouldn't would for a guy like that but it never hurts to check when you can."

Stan gladly accepts the drink, nodding along with Drael's questions. "Sude's alright, for Neimoidian. Just wants his cut at the end of the day, you know?"

"Don't we all, my friend. Don't we all." The pilot smiles and sits back in his creaky red leather chair, sipping his own drink. "So, when do we get these coordinates, we have a last minute errand to run  and then we can be moving so the sooner the better really." Drael idly looks over some of the controls, brushing specks of dust off. "Hope that thing isn't going to leave any marks." He spins the chair around to the doorway. "Think we are nearly done here folks, are we ready to roll? Make sure you go to the bathroom before you leave, you know the drill."

"Ah, yes, of course! Forget my own head if it wasn't screwed onto me neck," Stan mutters to himself, patting down his pockets as he searches for a code cylinder. "There you are," he says, handing it over. "Good hunting!"

"You try and stay out of trouble too Stan, see you on the flip side." Drael takes the code cylinder and gives the old man a friendly pat on the back as he heads towards the exit. "So we have a date with some bad people and then we can head off to wherever this thing tells us to, agreed?" He calls out over the comm once Stan has left and it is only the crew remaining.

Sovia sits on a cushion. Cross legged with her double bladed lightsaber in front of her, on her lap. It is the first time she has taken it out since she has come out of hiding, but now she feels the need once again to try and attune with the crystal. It has been so many years. It seems likely it will be needed in what is to come though and she has heard tale of those who are not still enough with the force cracking or even shattering the crystal. She centres herself, focusing on the weapon that had once been an extension of herself. When Drael's message comes through she holds her hand out above it, summoning it up into her outstretched palm. She stands. "Shall we then?"  

Docking bay 344 is on one of the upper levels of the spaceport and the passenger transport  Visitor is docked externally on a passenger boarding bridge outside the window of the departure lounge, which is cordoned off behind a transparisteel barrier and the standard passenger security check.

Ceph seems infinitely more comfortable as Drael get chummier and chummier with Stan, and clearly feels like his character judgement skills are still up to par. As the man leaves, Ceph gets ready to set out for their potentially dangerous next move. He slips his blaster discreetly into the back of his belt and gives a determined nod to the others as they set out.  Once the Visitor comes into view, Ceph sidles up to Nils. “Alright buddy, whatcha thinkin for this? Definitely don’t want to make the thing blow... maybe some sort of landing gear sabotage?” he offers. As he talks his eyes scan the scene for a discreet way to slip onto the ship himself.

"Oh, sure, we can just pull out a cable or something. No problem. The tricky bit will be getting there without being spotted. And getting onto the other side of this security fence. Though looking at this security we might be better off just anonymously telling them we sabotaged it without actually doing any sabotage." Nils looks around for any obvious ways around the passenger security check such as staff entrances or unguarded bits of barrier. "Maybe we could just paint the Kraken to say Bakura Meal Services , land next to the transport, and pretend we're delivering the inflight meals?"

Leb smiles at Nils suggestion.  "Do you think Sovia and I pose better as cookers or as bartenders?" 

The chuckle Nils earns with his eccentric ideas is cut short as Ceph spies an opening. He motions with a jerk of his head and moves quickly and confidently in the direction of the techs. The patterns on his skin shift to match the colors of their drab uniforms, just enough of an illusion to skirt the peripheral vision of the security guards. With Nils close behind, Ceph slips in after the workers. He holds up a hand to stop his friend behind him, allowing the techs to continue on down the corridor. Once they are out of earshot he turns back to Nils. “Not too bad. Now let’s find you a wire to pull.”

On a different frequency, Vin thanks Drael. "Nah, I get it.  I appreciate your support on this.  Its definitely a lot of effort for very little worth though.  Over."   Vin looked for the two conspirators outside the spaceport. Oh how he wished for a sniper rifle and a high perch.  A nice blaster bolt at 1000 yds through that Cerean's skull would solve the force problem. 'Can't stop it if they don't know its coming.' He repeated one of the Jedi hunters he'd met.  Not that he was skilled enough to pull off that kind of shot.  The thought brought a smile to his face though.  "Anything else before we shift to the ops channel?" Vin asks.

"Good work, Ceph!" whispers Nils excitedly. His synthetic body didn't produce adrenaline (a sensible design choice, as none of the other parts of his body would be affected by adrenaline anyway), but overclocking his shell had pretty much the same effect, and it felt good . "Maybe we should try to find an employee changing room, get some disguises?"

"If you're good, I'm good Vin." Drael replies into the comm " Feeling like a spare part at the moment while Ceph and Nils do their stuff, but better that they take the risks, know what I mean." He continues. "I was thinking we should really get a small speeder we can get onto the Kraken. Its be great to have transport we could take back and forth wherever we are. I dont like having to rely on others to get around." Shrugging to himself Drael finishes up saying "Still, that's why we pull these jobs isn't it, more credits equals more things we can buy. I agree the profit margins here aren't the best though."

Sovia falls in next to Lebenha as they walk. "We should stay close by incase of trouble but we should not be close enough to cause alarm. Try not to make concrete plans with your mind, it may alert them through the force."

Vin replies, "The problem with that is, a speeder would occupy the same space as any freight you'd haul."   

"Yeah, I guess but you can get mounts that save space and we have a decent hold. Maybe one for the future, after we get the droid and that drone I was thinking about the other night too..." Drael trails off as he daydreams about all the various tech equipment he wants to acquire for the ship.