A Simple Smuggler's Job

[Caligula]

Kashyyyk, the infamous forest planet of the Wookiee people. It was a beautiful planet in nearly every way: the environment, the culture, the people, and their technology. The massive mile high forests were a lovely sight for both the tourists and local hunters. Local customs, foods, and items sold by local craftsman are treasures of the people. The Wookiee people are a fascinating and strong people, with brave warriors to guard their planet. And the technology that focuses around more primal creations is a wonderful reminder of a time before.

Lisa was on the planet for a different reason. She was there for business. She was wearing her black battle armor underneath her casual clothes, with her rifle bag slung over her shoulder with her sniper carefully tucked away inside. At her side was her blaster pistol and vibroknife, which she kept her hands near as she eyed the crowd passing in front of her. Her gaze was low, cold, and calculated. Her eyepatch hid her bright red eye as her brown eye surveyed the area around her. She was standing outside of the hanger bay of one of the various cities that rested high above the ground. It was a series of platforms built in a circle, each of varying sizes for various ships. She was waiting around for 2 groups of people: one was her employer and the other was her partner.

She had been hired by a wealthy family of Wookiees to help transport a friend of theirs off-world to Jedi Protected space. Apparently this friend of theirs had gotten in some kind of trouble with Mandalorian local authorities and needed to get somewhere safe. They had called in the services of a smuggler, one named Caleb Jor from what they told Lisa. Her intel on the guy was vague, just a small background and an ID to work with. She didn’t like not knowing who she was working with, but this wasn’t the first time she had been assigned a new partner last second. Her time in the Border Alliance taught her to learn to adapt to her environment, no matter the circumstances. While she didn’t have to like it, credits were credits. Besides, she was doing a good thing. This friend of the Wookiees was just a simple merchant who had crossed the wrong Mandalorians. He wasn’t a bad guy or anything like that, not like the people she usually dealt with.

She waited near the entrance to the landing pads and waited for either her partner, Caleb, or her clients to show up. She knew that her clients were Wookiees travelling with a human, formerly from Coruscant. They’d know her when they saw her and they had a code phrase to tell Lisa when they met her. She just needed to wait for someone to arrive. She just hoped a Mandalorian didn't show up and ruin everything before it started.

@Caleb Del'Fin

 

[Caleb Del'Fin]

The smuggler had heard of the Wookiee homeworld oh Kashyyyk, but he had never actually made a trip to the planet until now. The villages built into tall trees, entirely out of circular wood platforms was an incredible sight to see. Even the star port was made of these same platforms, which held ships of different types and sizes. Most looked as they they were from off world, here for either pleasure or business. Caleb, of course, was here for the latter.

Caleb's employer for the day was the head of a Wookiee family named Hurralh. The large Wookiee needed his smuggling expertise to get a person of importance to the family off of the planet. He did not go too much into detail, but whatever he had done, the Mandalorian authorities in the sector were on the look out for him. Great, Caleb thought to himself, if things go badly, I'll have some of the most fearsome warriors in the galaxy aiming me down.

Hurralh and Caleb walked towards the star port, followed by another member of the family, who was pushing a long crate on a hovering push cart.
"One more thing smuggler must know." Hurralh said in low growls to Caleb. "I hired mercenary to go with you, Lisa Oswald. Mandalor'eeans could be problem. And.. Want to make sure you don't sell him back to them."

"Not to worry." Caleb said. "I will make sure the job gets done." Caleb said, shaking Hurralh's hand. That was where he and the wookiee parted ways, leaving only Caleb and the one pushing the cart to walk the rest of the way to the star port. As they got closer, Caleb saw a woman standing there, as if she was waiting for someone. Caleb turned to the wookiee and pointed towards Dock #3, where the Starlane Wanderer was parked.

"I take it you're Lisa Oswald?" Caleb said as he approached the woman with a smirk, "Caleb Jor. Hurralh said you would be joining me on this trip."

 

[Woof]

Space, a open and cold world for Ashford to explore. To him, this was maybe the most amazing thing to ever happen. He had to thank his planet for that, his old life. He wasn't stupid of course, people at younger ages then him had most likely already felt this feeling he had felt, grown use to it, out of it. But right now, he was in the aftermath of that glow, that glorious feeling. Well, maybe it wasn't the most amazing thing, no. Burrow gave him the most amazing thing he could really hope for, a life.

Still, he was landing on a new planet, the ship he had caught a ride in was stopping for a refuel and Ashford could not have been happier to be off the metal ship and into a new world, a new planet. He had been told the planets name was Kashyyyk, home to the Wookiees, a species that Ashford did not have the language for in his collection of languages taught to him by Burrow. Would be problematic, if he needed to ask one of the inhabitants something. But from the fact the landing pads was not far from civilization, told him others would not be so hard to find. The place was just beautiful to look at, he could not have been the only one here to see it.

Upon its landing, Ashford left the vessel as soon as he could, taking in the fresh air of the new planet. He wanted to say it was a different taste to what he was use to on his old planet, but he wouldn't know, never cared to taste the air and compare. He could, however, feel something about this planet that was different from his own. The feeling of the force, how so much life flowed around him, already a change to what he was so use too. It was a good change. Patting down his leather jacket, the metal feeling of Burrow's lightsaber pressed against the fabric of his shirt. He moved onward, deciding even if nothing happened on this forest planet, he was already on an adventure, something he could get use too.

 

[Caligula]

Hurralh and the smuggler, Caleb, came down the wooden pathway towards Lisa, talking among themselves as they approached her. She had a bored scowl on her face as the two came up to her. Caleb seemed friendly enough as he approached Lisa with a smile. She nodded at his assumption. "Yeah," She remained sullen. "Lt. Lisa Oswald, former Border Alliance officer for the planet Velmor. And yes, Hurralh hired me to make sure you don't do what most smuggler's do; that being lie and double cross their employers for a larger payout." She wasn't a fan of smugglers, bounty hunters, and mercenaries. It was a bit ironic, seeing as she had become the latter quite recently. She had even received a few job offers beforehand, but they were assassination jobs. She doesn't like the idea of killing people who don't deserve it, or at least people who haven't done her any harm.

She looked back at the docking area, seeing the various ships that had touched down in the past few minutes. "Which one is yours?" She asked rather gruffly. She would usually greet a new companion with warmth and friendliness, but since the destruction of her home and the death of her father and dear friend, she wasn't much in the mood for cheerfulness.

Coming down the wooden walkway from the opposite direction, a small patrol of Mandalorian police were making their rounds. They had gotten the report about the missing person of interest and were searching rather intently for him. Unfortunately, that same person was the one that Lisa and Caleb were smuggling off-world.

 

[Caleb Del'Fin]

Caleb nodded his head in understanding when the woman confirmed that she was the one hired to take the trip with him.
"Ah, a Lieutenant. My apologies." he said, cocking his head slightly to the side. Lisa's combat history took Caleb by surprise a bit, for her beautiful face did not contain any scars of battle, aside from the eye patch she wore. She also did not look much older than Caleb himself, meaning she must have served when she was young. However, the way she carried herself was strong and proud, just as a soldier was.
As she asked which ship was his, he pointed to the dock just across from the platform they stood on currently, where he saw Hurrahl's companion prepping the mysterious crate to be loaded onto his freighter.
"Shall we?" Caleb said as he stepped past the woman and towards his ship, the Starlane Wanderer.

Now under the ship, Caleb had lowered down the lift he would use to bring the crate up into his ship. Just before he had a chance to load his shipment. He heard the sound of armored footsteps approaching from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw three men standing there in Mandalorian armor, the first of the group approached him.
"One moment. We are looking for a Rodian merchant by the name of Ruulo Burgin. Any idea where we could find him?"
The smuggler merely shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, "Can't say I've ever even heard the name. This is my first time here for business, so I haven't really had a chance to meet the locals." Caleb felt the man staring at him through the dark T-visor of his helmet, trying to get a read on the man. The Mandalorian then turned to the crate he was about to load onto his ship, "Mind if I ask what you're taking off world?" he asked, sounding rather suspicious.

Caleb walked over to the crate, giving Lisa a sidelong glance as he did so. Unlatching the container, Caleb opened the container. A blast of cool air, mixed with the smell of spiced meat hit both Caleb. "Fermented Kinrath meat." he said, presenting the open freezer box to the Mandalorian. The man looked inside at the boxes before looking at Caleb once again. "I'll tell you one thing, these Wookiees sure know how to prepare these just right.. They- "
"Thats enough." The Mandalorian said, forcefully. "Carry on."

As the patrol continued onto the next dock, Caleb looked at Lisa and smirked, before sending the freezer up into his ship, and leading the Lieutenant into the cockpit of the frigate.

 

[Woof]

Ashford could not get enough of this planet, he had been on it for only such a small amount of time, yet already he just felt free and engorged in it's population, they were so fluffy! If he wasn't a rational man, he might have just gone ahead and touched them to see how coarse their fur was. Or if it was as soft as it kinda looked. He almost wanted to laugh aloud in the middle of this strange, beautiful and exotic place he was just a stranger in. "This... Is just... Amazing. It really is." Ashford finished with a intake of air, keeping it in. He just wanted this moment to last, forget being a young adult, acting like a child was just... Great.

However, that... Feeling, great as it was, was nothing compared to the feeling it got now, of cold metal and deceit. Releasing his breath, he turned his head back to the landed ships, his eyes slowly but gradually drifting to docking zone three. Something just tugged at him, told him to go back towards the metal vessel, while different to the one that took him here was by no means, he didn't like the idea of being drawn back to the cold metal that could fly him away from this amazing planet. Not when he had yet barely enough time to explore it.

Yet he didn't resist the feeling, no instead he indulged it, walking towards the dock, he slowed down when he spotted five strangers, three of them, equipped in armor that almost made the young mans mouth drop. Not for he knew what the armor meant or signified, but for it's ravenous beauty in defense. It was nice to look at, so much so he wanted a set of his own just for the feeling of it. His attention soon however, was drawn to the other two, a man dressed well enough that Ashford wanted to compare his clothes to his own, he who simply wore a rather plain grey pants, a white t shirt under his brown leather jacket. It's sleeves covering almost the whole of his arms, so that his bandaged left hand was mostly hidden, only his hand and a bit of his wrist showing the bandages that hid his many scars. He also had a belt, simple in design that it held a singular, rather plain blaster, and hidden inside his jacket, the lightsaber.

The final one was the woman, who to Ashford, might have been the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but he held back from thinking anymore. He was quite the distance from her to judge anymore then he already had. Didn't help that pretty woman were normally a rarity to his eyes. Still, he wanted to get closer to these people, see why his feeling drew him here, but he wasn't sure how, so he moved to the side, trying not to look over to them too much, but also keeping an eye on them at the very least.

Catching sight of an open crate, Ashford stopped for a moment, watching the three armored men, one looking into the box before just as quickly backing away and moving towards the next dock, towards him with his two clones. But Ashford lost interest in them for a moment when he saw the much better dressed male head into the ship. Rather bigger then the ship he had arrived on. Closing distance to it, hoping to meet the two strangers left over, Ashford had all but forgotten the three armored men, only to be reminded they existed when he clashed into them. Causing him to stumble past the first one to which he quickly dashed between the the two behind, hoping to hurr...

He noticed the missing feeling of the cool metal pressed against his chest and he turned back, his lightsaber having been knocked out of the inner pocket inside his jacket when he had clashed with the front guard. All four men stared at the cylinder object, not the most interesting in design, simple, a ashen like color but very obviously a lightsaber. But to Ashford, that lightsaber was everything to him, it's grip, it's feeling. Before the men could even react, Ashford pushed his hand out and focused on the lightsaber, grasping it with the force, he pulled it towards him, the weapon seeming to shiver for a moment before flying to his hand.

"Jedi..." The voice was rough, threatening. Ashford could only look at the three now very dangerous men for a moment before turning on his heel and running, seeing no time to explain that he wasn't a Jedi, nor was he the counterpart. He knew that some didn't like one or the other, Burrow had told him as much, but he hadn't expected this!. Running towards the vessel, Ashford felt as if his feet were practically flying or more, gliding across the wooden floor as he raced towards the large vessel he had seen the two enter, seeing it as his only hope of escape.

Getting close to the vessel, Ashford looked over his shoulder to see the three armored men, blasters in hand, taking aim at his running form. Taking the initiative, Ashford ducked to the side, finding himself hidden under the wing of his intended vessel as one of the blasters bolts hit the ship, the sound deafening to his ears and the and loud enough it might spook the pilot of this ship. Panicking at the thought of being left alone to deal with the scariest looking things he had met since meeting Burrow all those years ago, he dived for the entry ramp, scrambling up it, hoping that the pilot of this ship would quickly lift it up and fly away, taking Ashford away from the danger. He hadn't even the thought for the fact this vessel was not his to ride in, nor did he know where it would be going.

 

[Caligula]

The massive crate that was being moved over to the cargo hold immediately caught Lisa's eye. It was clearly their means of smuggling in Ruulo Burgin, but Lisa wasn't concerned about that too much. She was more concerned about the Mandalorian patrol coming their way. She maintained her composure but her muscles tensed up, her hands being careful not to inch towards her blaster just yet. They approached the duo, asking if they had seen the Rodian they were after. Caleb took up the conversation, diverting them and showing them that the contents were just some frozen, fermented meat. Lisa remained rather motionless as she leaned against one of the supports of the landing gear. They seemed angrily satisfied with his answer and left the two in peace.

After Caleb had nicely taken care of the guards, Lisa followed him into the ship. She walked with him through the wonderful hallways of his freighter. It was nice to be on a star ship again. She wasn't much of a fan of the ground these days. She just wanted to get on a ship and get away from everything that was tearing this galaxy apart. She hated all the violence, all the death, it was all pointless to her. No one needs to die, except maybe the Emperor.

Unfortunately, her mindset was rattled by the sudden sound of gunfire against the hull of the ship. Her battle instincts kicked in as she drew her pistol. "Get this crate in the air! I'll take care of whoever is shooting at us!" She called to Caleb as she rushed towards the entrance of the ship. She made it to the entrance and saw a young man nearly collapsed up the entrance ramp, as if he had been thrown or dove up it. Lisa was about to accuse him of something when more bolts came towards the ship, scorching spots on the entrance ramp. Lisa took cover behind one of the walls and took aim. The world seemed to run in slow motion, a common occurrence when she wielded a gun, as she focused on the three guards coming towards the ship. "Stop! In the name of Mandalore! You are not permitted to leave this hanger!"

Lisa barely focused on their words as her training kicked in, her hand extending in a line towards the patrol and picking her next shots carefully. She fired three times, aiming at their legs and blasters. Each shot found it's mark perfectly, wounding the two supports and destroying the blaster of the leader. At the same time the ship's engines had kicked in and the Starlane Wanderer was lifting off the ground and into the air. The entrance ramp began to close as the ship lifted up into Kashyyyk airspace. When the ramp was fully closed and secured, she turned her attention to the young man who had caused the trouble. Her gun barrel focused on the man's forehead. "Now," She exhaled in frustration. "What's your story?"

 

[Caleb Del'Fin]

Once the duo were inside of the ship's cockpit, the man took a seat. "Alright, lets get the hell out of here. I'm sure our cargo needs to defrost." Caleb said with a smirk, looking over his shoulder at the Lieutenant. As the man got the ship running, he heard the sound of heavy blaster fire from the side of his ship, as well as the impact on his ship. "I guess Mandalorians don't like Kinrath." Caleb said as he tried to get the frigate up into the air as quickly as possible. Though a ship as old as this one needed some time to warm up. Lisa quickly took to the defense and ran to the side of the ship were the loading ramp was still rising. The Starlane Wanderer rose up from the ground and into the air. Once he saw his path was clear of the dock's walls that surrounded the ship, he put all power to the thrusters, the frigate soaring away from the immediate danger.

Once the ship was out of Kashyyyk's atmosphere, the man set the frigate's coordinates to the nearest planet in Jedi-Protected space, Onderon, his homeworld. Looking over his shoulder, he noticed that Lisa had not returned from her firefight with the Mandalorian authorities. Switching the auto-pilot on, Caleb ran to the loading area. Turning down the hallway of his ship, the man spotted Lisa standing there, her rifle aiming down the head of a young man who Caleb did not know. "Who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my ship." Caleb called over to the man as he walked towards the crate of Kinrath meat from before. He knew that Lisa had a careful eye on the man, and he trusted her as a once member of the Republic Army.

Now standing at the long crate, Caleb grabbed at a hidden latch, located just before the underside of the container. Unlocking the compartment, he slid the door open. Almost immediately, a Rodian, wrapped in a thick cloth, squirmed his way out of the coffin-like box as quickly as he could to escape the cold.
"Finally. I thought I was going to freeze to death." the Rodian said in Huttese. "I heard blasters. Do they know I'm on board?"

"I'm not sure" Caleb said, shaking his head. He then turned his attention to the uninvited man. "I have a feeling he could tell us why those Mandalorians were blasting at us." The smuggler took his own blaster out of his holster and slowly walked towards the man. "Start talking."

 

[Woof]

Ashford made an effort to try and climb the ramp on all fours, looking over his shoulder, he could see the three armored men began firing at him more, forcing him to collapse onto his stomach and roll to the side to be a rather annoying target to hit. Thankfully, he was offered reprieve when he heard footsteps stop by him and blaster fire returning back to the... Mandalorians. Ashford sat up at this tidbit of information he had finally managed to collect from the mandalorian patrol leader. The lightsaber in his hand felt cold yet his head felt warm at the fact those were mandalorians. He'd never met a mandalorian before and now he had gone and made not one but three of the angry. Wonderful.

When the ramp was fully closed, Ashford crawled away from the dreaded thing and took a moment to just settle himself, only to find peace would not be coming to him anytime soon because of the fact he had a gun focused on his forehead. Looking dumbfound for a moment, Ashford racked his mind to find a answer, distracted by the second blaster aimed at him by the man he had seen before, a.. Rodian, if his memory served him right nearby. Now that he was closer, Ashford could see the finer details of the cooler dressed man and the woman, who had a eyepatch. It didn't take away from her look. Realizing he needed to give an answer before he found himself dead before this day got any cooler... Worse? Still to be decided.

"Ok... I mean... I got no good reason. I saw you guys and I wanted to get closer. Then I bumped into those..." Ashford stopped for a moment and smiled to himself, mandalorians. Awesome. "Yea. I dropped my light-" It was then Ashford realized he still had the weapon in his hand and proceeded to bury it into his jacket, a what was hopefully an innocent smile etched onto his face. "They called me Jedi, and sounded rather angry. So I ran for what was the safest looking thing... Your vessel. Sorry." Standing from his seated place slowly, making sure his lightsaber was in his jackets inside pocket, he raised his right hand in surrender and moved his bandaged left hand to the belt that held his own blaster, taking it off and dropping it by the side of his foot, trying to show he wasn't a threat.

Still, he was light on his feet, his eyes switching between the two, looking for any chance to move in case they opened fire. All because he didn't think they'd shoot him for being here, didn't mean he wasn't going to treat them with trust. Burrow instilled survival into his mind enough he was sure he could move out of the way of the woman's rifle fast enough if she opened fire. Whether or not he would do so while only being grazed or worse was going to be up to luck as she was too close for him to have chance of completely moving out of the way. "I am sorry if I caused any trouble. And I'd ask if you'd not drop me off for them, but I suspect you wouldn't want to do go back yourself now." The Rodian who spoke Huttese, the fact she had fired at the mandalorians. Whatever they were doing, they'd not risk going back, which meant his ride was not going to be having him for a while. Which was just... Great.

 

[Caligula]

"You're a shaky fellow, aren't you?" Lisa asked, not impressed by the stranger's explanation of how he had ended up on the ship while getting shot at by Mandalorians. She noticed that the stranger had failed to give his name during his jabber, but she was a little distracted with the Rodian emerging from the block of frozen Kinrath meat. That must have been their cargo. She had never smuggled anyone before so she was not familiar with the various means of trafficking a person. She made a mental note to ask Caleb about his other methods.

The presence of a lightsaber changed the situation in a dramatic way. Lisa didn't show a reaction to the weapon's existence but she was bothered by it. Only those trained in the force can successfully use a lightsaber, meaning that this person was dangerous one way or another. The question came down to whether or not this person was a sith or a jedi. Lisa couldn't really get a vibe on them, but that just made her more suspicious.

"Now," She looked to the stranger and refocused her blaster on his torso. "About your name." She let a small, cheeky grin come through. "What was it?"

Back on Kashyyyk, the Mandalorian officials were quick to try and track down Caleb's ship, now that they knew that a possible Jedi was on board and that the inhabitant of the ship had shot at them. They had pilots rushing to their ships, moving fast to get airborne and after the freighter. Command was having some concerns. "Sir, we've guessed that they are trying to make for neutral or Jedi controlled space. We can't afford to follow them there without meeting resistance beyond our fighters' capabilities. What would you suggest?" The Commander paused for a moment, thinking about an answer. Then he nodded to himself. "Send out a bounty. Any mercenary, bounty hunter, or citizen of Mandalore who brings that ship's inhabitants to our control will receive a substantial reward from the Mandalorian government. Make it quick." And soon the message was sent throughout the nearby systems, waking up a cluster of unsavory characters hoping to make it with Mandalore.

Meanwhile, near the planet of Onderon, the pirate vessel Miss Fortune rests just outside the planet's atmosphere. It was waiting for something to catch it's eye when suddenly it got a message. The captain of the vessel read it carefully and let an evil grin slip onto his face. "So," He grinned. "Fugitives of Mandalore are coming to my planet? Well then," He rose from his chair and walked to the bridge. "We'll have to return them to the authorities." He sat down in his captain's chair with a huff and barked at his crew. "Boys! We're on the hunt!" His crew cheered and yelled as they laid in wait for their pray to show up.