Ask An Honest Day's Work with Dishonest Cargo

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
iv4fGgKdG83htofe8enUsL-650-80.gif
"C'mon in and out in a day, easy money... Just make sure my guy is the only one that opens it 'kay.


Sera thought over the words of her would be employer that she had met on Carida. She didn't like it one bit but the pay was too good to pass up. A simple one way trip from Carida to Onderon half up front, half upon completion of delivery and the only thing to complicate things was some unmarked cargo crates stashed away in the hold of her ship. It would be nice to be able to look at the glaring neon red flag that was the mystery cargo and say no, but she didn't feel like she had the luxury of being picky. So far things were just cozy on the ship as her quad five Hetzer troddled its way through space.

A song was blasting away through the Hetzer's speakers as Sera was sitting back in the co-pilot's chair with her feet kicked up and crossed. Her hands on a fresh cigarette as she tried her best to relax. Her eyes gazing to her left to look at one of the few people joining her on this trip. Some pilot who was convinced she was the next best thing since solo who called herself Neri. She didn't know too much about her and they first time meeting was under a table on Junkfort as blaster bolts were flying about. Not necessarily the best way to make an introduce but she hadn't try to screw her over (yet) and was pretty quick on the draw wit wise. Though she didn't want to admit it, subconsciously she welcomed the fact that she was now traveling with a few people instead of the usual lonesome travels. Even if Sera found herself quiet for long periods of time thinking to herself.

In fact right now her thoughts were now shifting over to the second person accompanying her. An ashen haired oddity with a thick accent that she had met as a result of trying to slum in the same empty house... Sera sometimes wondered if she would ever just meet someone in a normal way or if she was just condemned to having to suffer through these weird semi-life threatening shenanigans. Still Alana was one of the few people that didn't immediately hate her which made her one of the few people who would willingly accompany her. Right now though the thing about Alana that Sera was thinking about was the fact that she had gone and disappeared to another part of the ship again. She had done so several times so far on this short trip and Sera was convinced that it wasn't a 'bathroom break'. Which was a small source of annoyance for Sera.

Just what the hell was that woman doing.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
"Come on, Come on, Come on." Alana muttered as she tried to get the once secure crate to close. She really wished someone had warned her that their cargo was filled with deathsticks and various other drugs, but sadly she didn't have that luxary; though deathsticks were quite marvelous. The situation she was currently in though was quite a pickle. Alana had initially planned on just taking a 'smoke break' in the back, like was expected of her, except she always had deathsticks instead of cigs. Anyways, while she had been smoking, her curiosity got the best of her, and one thing lead to another, now their cargo crate was open and she couldn't for the life of her get it to stay shut.

Sera and Neri were going to catch on soon, and then they were going to kill her, there was no doubt about that. She'd be dead, and probably spaced for this. She could hear music just faintly from where she was now, as Alana tried once more to get the 'seal' of the crate to engage. Sera was probably going to walk in here any moment now and pummel her with a socket wrench, and Neri would tie her to a chair -again-. This just wasn't her week. So while her two companions were busy chilling in the cockpit, Alana was in the back trying to keep the cargo container to remain shut; it looked shut from the outside at least. If only Alana knew that the seal button was on the side of the crate, and instead of 'sealing' the crate, she was just unlocking it whenever she attempted to 'seal' it.

@Powerfullhorus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43
Neriya Dahle was deep in thought. She had returned to the cockpit, knowing that their ship would exit hyperspace real soon. She had been waiting for a minute of ten or so, thinking and dreaming about a lot of things. It was unusual for the Bespinian pilot to be silent this long, but that was partly caused by her company. The two women she was supposed to work with, were acquaintances, but not particularly good ones. After having seen Sera take people out with her magic taser hand, she was cautious of the woman. As for Alana, well she had tied the woman to a chair once before. Didn't exactly make you trust each other either, did it? Still a little distracted, Neri spoke up. "Say, if someone would tie you to a chair, take your stuff and threaten you, would you be able to trust them afterwards?" She asked, knowing it was a rhetoric question, but still genuinely curious how her team member would respond.

Once the ship exited hyperspace, Neri would take the control yoke in her hands again. Their journey to Onderon consisted out of a couple of short jumps, which seemed a little to easy. The Bespinian also didn't really trust their employer. Not opening crates, sure. But not being allowed to know what they were transporting? That was shady. Twice had she attempted to sneak into the back of the ship to open the crates, and twice had something come between her and gazing upon their secret cargo. Toggling one of the many switches on the the control panel, Neri brought the Hetzer in position for the final jump. Just as the pilot prepared to make the final jump, her display showed something rather unwelcome. An incoming transmission. Neri glanced at the woman in the co-pilot seat, urging her to turn off the music. Taking a deep breath, Neri allowed the transmission to come through.

"This is Captain Tilas of the HCSF. Please state your cargo and destination." the female voice stated, while the Hetzer picked up an approaching craft on its scanners. It took Neri little effort to find out that the craft was, in fact, a heavily armed SS-54 coming their way. The Bespinian pilot cursed under her breath. HCSF. Hapes Consortium Security Force. In other words, authorities...


@Algarus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
Sera's thoughts were interrupted as Neri's words suddenly cut through the air and music like a dagger. Mainly because she was being asked something so oddly specific. Like she had done this a lot. Her head stopped bobbing to the beat of the song as she looked Neri in the eyes. Except it didn't feel like she was trying to look at her eyes but rather burn her gaze straight through them and into the back of her heads.

"If it's because you're thinking of doing that to me. Don't

Sera then turned her gaze away from and resumed to bob her head to the music only now slightly peeved at her pilot. Still it was otherwise just more boring travel in space. She looked back at the astromech socket and her new to her NM droid NM-5 who was just plucking away doing his job. Sera was wondering if the subtle movements of his upper frame was actually the droid moving in beat to the music. They were still in the getting to know eachother phase but he seemed grateful that she pulled him out from his grave in a junkyard.

Sera was now looking out to the cold cosmos of space about to watch everything merge together into the mesmerizing blue portal of hyperspace until Neri motioned her to cut the music. Doing so she heard the one voice she tried to hear the most. The law. Demanding a statement of intent. Great of all times this had to happen it was right here, just as they were about to get out scott free from and have a easy pay day. Kriff. Making sure they weren't broadcasting any comms yet Sera got up from her chair.

"Neri, see if you can get them to go away. Registration is in that glove box to your right, Nems keep your hyperdrive calculations ready in case we need to hightail it. I'm going to go check on the cargo and see the fething kark Alana is."

With a few confirmatory beeps from Nems Sera would start walking her back to the cargo hold, hoping that everything was till the way she left it: discrete and shut. Climbing down a ladder from the cockpit to the cargo hold and now getting ready to open the door leading in this shouldn't be too bad. With a succinct click of the door control the twin sliding doors would move away revealing the state of the cargo hold to Sera.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
"Come on you little son of a rotwort, close!" Alana swore as quietly as she could, hoping she would manage to get the crate to close; but sadly, she could not. The faint clang of footsteps against the ladder alerted her to someone coming down to check on her, so Alana did what any reasonable person would do, threw the covering over the half open crate and took one good step away from the display. Alana put on a nervous smile and went back to smoking her deathsticks. When the door opened, Alana felt part of her soul leave her body, as Sera was the one who had come to check in on her.

"Howdy there partner." Alana tipped her hat once she saw her acquaintance, as she awkwardly tried to find something to sit down on. She finally found a small chair to her side and pulled it up behind her. "How goes it? Just having a rough day today, so I've been burning through my death stick supply like crazy." She trailed off, raising her half spent cartridge up to Sera. "Hey, if your lucky, I might topple over before we make it to Onderon, so that's something to think about huh?" She asked, hoping the inclusion of dark humor might make the woman go away. It was so damn hard to read this woman, and half the time Alana felt the woman was just looking for something to take her anger out on. If Sera noticed the package had been tampered with, Sera would probably try and strangle her. It was for that reason that Alana was taking note of possible weapons Sera might try and use to commit the act, and she was getting a tad disturbed at how many things in the cargo hold could work as weapons of strangulation. She was totally fethed.

@Powerfullhorus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43

"Thought as much.." Neri responded to the woman with the burning eyes. "Shame though..." she muttered, keeping her voice down so that Sera wouldn't be able to hear her comment.

Neri's eyes followed the black-haired woman as she got up. Was she going to leave her here alone now? Did she have to lie her way out of this without help? The orders given by capt. Jex seemed to confirm her fears. Neri started mumbling to herself as she reached for the ship's registration codes. "Great, just great. You HAD to tell everyone you were such a great smuggler. Can't you just shut up for once and not get in these situations!?" once she had found the proper codes, Neri started broadcast. "Hi there, sorry for the wait." Neri glanced over her shoulder, looking for an excuse. "Gonna warn you in advance captain.... what was your name again?" she knew it damn well, but she had to keep them busy somehow. While her hopes were high, the HCSF assault ship didn't respond. "Anyway, our droid's malfunctioning a lil'. Could just be a phase, but I don't know. It'll just take some time to upload this stuff, that's all I'm saying." Still, no response. Were they just going to wait her out? Fine.

Neri cracked her knuckles. If someone could get them to talk, it was her. "Uploading the data right now. You should have it in a good minute. While we're waiting, I gotta ask, since when do the Hapans use light assault ships?" Annoyed by her small talk, the captain finally responded. "We are still waiting for your cargo and destination. State them now, or we will be forced to board." It wasn't the response she had hoped for, but it was a victory for the pilot nonetheless. "Oh! Totally forgot about that. We're heading to Onderon, transporting Tibanna gas. Got the license to transport Tibanna gas lying around here somewhere, if you got another minute.." Neri stated with a grin on her face.



@Algarus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
When the door open Sera was glad to see that Alana wasn't trying to hide... or try to blow herself out of an airlock still her demeanor was... off. Granted that was likely the deathsticks talking and the display of a half smoken stick all but confirmed that. Sera still couldn't understand just why the kark Alana was so into those things. The smell along was foul and reminded her more of waste disposal sites than calm relaxation. Atleast spice often had a nice herbal smell to it.

Still then her gaze shifted over to the half covered container. This wasn't good. She had recessed it against a wall where it slid nicely in place just so it would blend in against the dark interior of the bay and look like it was always meant to be there. There was a nice support pillar that jutted out the wall like a ridged fin for added structure support, Sera wondered though if the designers of the Quad five had intended these to be used for transporting suspicious cargo but that wasn't the pressing issue.

What was is that it was moved, covered and there was a nervous Alana just standing there. Still she could grill Alana later when the authorities passed.

"There you are. We need to move this thing now. HCSF just hailed our ship and we need this hidden away just in case they decide to conduct a search." As Sera was rattling this off to her drugged out partner in crime she made her way to the crate getting ready to push when she felt the lid of the crate move under her weight... quickly pulling a small bit of the covering up she saw the one thing she didn't want to see: The crate's contents. There were a lot of drugs and other assorted contraband just littered about in there. But the drugs in the crate weren't on her mind. It was the drug addicted woman with the half used deathstick standing there trying her damnedest to act there was nothing wrong with this. Later soon became now.

What proceeded was simply silence as Sera stared at Alana eyes filled with anger and accusation. Alana karked up. Alana karked up bad. In fact she karked up so bad that Sera was stressing every fiber of her body to control herself so she didn't have to explain to both Neri and the potential HCSF search team why there was woman beaten half to death bleeding on the floor of their cargo bay.

"Here's what's going to happen: You are going to give me that deathstick in your hands, in fact your going to give me every deathstick you have out in the open. We are going to put them inside this crate and close it. We are going to then push this back over where it should be and we'll both go check in on Neri. After that, well... we'll find out."

Each of her words were slow and methodical devoid of any emotion except for the occasional trace of anger that bled through. Earlier Alana had told Sera that she wouldn't be a liability, that she'd be useful. Sera had decided to take a risk on this stranger's words. And now she let her down.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
Alana only nodded and smiled as Sera moved on by, giving her a run down on what they were going to do. Alana's smile faltered, as Sera immediately discovered what she had done, and the two woman had a rather awkward stare down. Alana was ready for Sera to jump her and strangle her to death, in fact she was anticipating it. Her lips puckered together, as her expression just read as one big 'yep, I did it'. She felt terrible about what she had done, not peaking, because screw that, but seeing as how she had let Sera down; that look was the same that Kraud and Astra always gave her, and that never stopped hurting. She took one long drag of her death stick and sighed, rather surprised that Sera didn't attempt to kill her. She didn't like Sera's ultimatum, but she was inclined to agree. If they were having some sector ranger come aboard, Alana couldn't have her drug of choice on hand. 'You just going to let her talk to you like that?' She felt the cold take hold of her mind, digging it's icy claws into the back of her neck.

'First Neri, now her? How long are you going to let people push you around, Alana?' It asked, it's presence sending a shiver through her body, causing her to drop the deathstick in her grasp as her hands began to tremble. She clasped the sides of her head, feeling the cold begin to squeeze both sides of her head, a shrill scream filling her skull as 'it' tried to assert itself over her. 'Kill her before she kills you.'. "Shut the feth up!" Alana shouted aloud as she leapt to her feet, knocking the chair over as she did so. She felt the presence melt away, it's hold over her vanishing almost immediately. She glanced to Sera with wide eyes, as she reached into her coat and shoved it into the crate without another word. If Sera needed help moving the crate, Alana would help without saying a thing. "I'll...I'm going to check on Neri." She muttered, and quickly made her way out before Sera could say anything else. Before leaving the room, Alana paused only for a moment, throwing a sympathetic glance towards Sera before leaving. "I'm sorry." She screwed up, and she knew it. Maybe this is why no one wanted to have her around. The death sticks weren't helping anymore, the voices were only getting worse. She just needed to stay away from people once they were done with this job. She didn't want to hurt anyone.

@Powerfullhorus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43

"There ya go, should have everything now." Neri stated, as she uploaded the last few documents to make their shipment look legal. And well, it kind of was. They didn't know what was stored in the couple of crates they transported for their secretive employer and to hide these crates, they had some in frozen-carbonite suspended Tibanna gas. Even if they HCSF would come aboard, they could avoid getting caught, or so she hoped.

"Destination and cargo are in order. However, our scanners have picked up more than just carbonite-frozen Tibanna gas among your cargo. We would still like to come aboard and check it." Neri cursed under her breath. "Your scanners must be malfunctioning. All we have aboard is Tibanna-gas." she lied, hoping to change the captain's mind. It was to no avail, however. "We shall board your craft in 5 minutes." with that statement, the transmission ended. Stopping her own broadcast, Neri immediately dashed out of the cockpit, down the ladder to the cargo hold to warn the others.

"Ladies! We're in trouble" she began, noticing the tension between Alana and Sera. "What happened..." she asked, before shaking her head. "No, this is more important. We're getting boarded in 5 minutes. Jumping to hyperspace is not gonna cut it; they've got our destination and all they wanna do is check your cargo." she explained, her eyes shifting between the two. "So you hon," Neri pointed at Sera. "You gotta stop being so angry, dark and broody for a few minutes. You're way more attractive when you're smiling." she stated, not taking 'no' for answer. "And you..." she turned to Alana. "If you can't act like you're clean I'll tie you up again and hide you in one of those crates." She wasn't kidding. What they needed right now, was to look and act normal. And she couldn't care less about whatever kind of conflict her companions had right now.

@Algarus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
Sera was close to snapping at Alana almost looking for an excuse to just let go. However, what happened had actually confused her. Seeing Alana drop everything and grasp her head, her body twitching in some sort of internal struggle was almost surreal. What was worse though was the chill. Sera was familiar with that cold, it was like a survival mechanism to her, if she started feeling icy cold she knew things were about to go south. What made this chill different was that instead of radiating within her as it sucked away heat like a black hole it was coming from somewhere else.

That was terrifying. As that chill came so did what felt like frantic set of whispers itching at her head in a voice she wasn't familiar with... was that Alana? It made Sera wonder if Alana was much like her and it was so surreal that her anger had been displaced. That final scream just snapping her out of the fixation and adding so many questions. Something was wrong with her and it was something similar to what Sera had been dealing with herself. Words... words just vanished in a situation like this.

As they carried out hiding the crate in complete silence and with little thought that could be had. Sera may not want to admit it but she could have hugged Neri for giving her an escape from this weird and awkward position. To be honest if she and Alana were locked in that hold for another hour she didn't know if it would have resulted in one of them dying at the hands of the other. Still Neri's comments did distract her brain.

"...Hon?... wait you think I'm attra-" Sera trailed off as her mind processed the implications and suddenly her face started to blush profusely at the suggestion. The stern anger from earlier that could have bashed someone's skull in was now replaced by uncomfortable social awkwardness her face heated up causing her to turn her down towards the floor to obstruct her face.

This was definitely going to be one of those days that would need to end with booze. A lot of karking booze.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
Alana was expecting Sera to try and initiate something with what had just gone down. To her surprise, the woman didn't clobber her, berate her, or try to start anything. They merely went about their work, not looking one another in the eye, no air of defiance. Nothing. Not that Alana was in the mind of caring, she simply felt rather perturbed at her own flaws. When Neri called down to them, Alana merely looked up at her with uncaring slightly red eyes, her gaze looked almost lifeless. "I'll be fine. Deathsticks hardly do anything for me anymore. Let's just get this over with, and if we have to kill the fether we can just toss him out the airlock." Alana said without a touch of humor, a chill radiating from her as she left the cargo hold and made for the ladder. "Hopefully it won't come to that, but if it does I'll handle the clean up. Let's just hope that doesn't happen." Alana added, shoving past Neri, as she just wanted to get this over with, leaving the two women to talk about whatever they were on about. Alana paid it no mind, she had bigger concerns right now.

She felt that creeping void, that sinking feeling from her encounter with Neri welling up in her chest, and she wanted it gone. There were only two ways that Alana knew how to do that, and she really didn't want to. Her boots would cling against the metal of the ladder, her mind trying to keep herself from having another breakdown. She didn't feel herself at all, she just felt wrong, and she couldn't put a finger on why that was. She'd relocate herself to the refresher onboard, locking the door behind her and just letting herself slide down the wall until she was on the floor. She just needed some time to herself. It was better for everyone if she just stayed away, so maybe she'd do just that once they reached Onderon. It'd be better that way, for everyone. Until she sorted herself out, she needed to keep people away. Tears of frustation welled up in her eyes, as Alana drug her hand down her face, letting out a long sigh at these new developments. She was going crazy, she had to be, and it was time she got help for it before someone ended up dead. Right now though, they needed to get past inspection, then she could pull her disappearing act.

@Caught in Strangereal @Powerfullhorus
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43

Neri grinned as Sera started blushing. "Just stating facts love, just stating facts..." she said with a shrug. Turning to Alana, she continued. "Alana... You don't look okay." Ever since she had met the woman back on Coruscant, had she been kind of worried about her. She often felt guilty and looked depressed or sad. Neri had wanted to help her, but she hadn't succeeded in gathering the courage to ask Alana about it yet. She deeply loved both of her companions, despite the short time they were together, and the Bespinian pilot hated seeing either of them in such an emotional state. "If you wanna talk 'bout it... Just tell me, kay?" she muttered, not sure how to deal with the matter at hand. Once the HCSF was gone, she would try to confront Alana about it. Give her a hug if she needed one and well, there was nothing else she could really do.

"They'll be upon us soon", Neri mumbled. "I told them about the Tibanna Gas shipment, but they identified some crates that lacked frozen-carbonite. They wanna check it out now, so we gotta make sure that they don't find whatever is in those crates." she explained, before she suddenly realized something. "Hang on a min. Did you two open one of the crates?" She asked Sera specifically, knowing that the socially awkward woman was probably still too flustered to lie. "So... what are we transporting love?.." The pilot was genuinely curious. What was it that they risked being captured with?

@Algarus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
Sera's face remained it's new rose pink complexion and she honestly just wished it could stop as she wanted to focus on anything else at this point. As the awkward silence droned on from Sera her thoughts would turn to Alana as Sera's mind caught on to the tone coming from her. It felt familiar one could say it was defeat coming from the poor woman. She was losing her fight and Sera's thoughts drew to the worse case scenario. Waking up to a dead body and a note. She wanted to do something but now wasn't time and acting wasn't the best solution not when more pressing manners were upon them. She would just have to let this one go for now. If Alana's troubles were because of some asshole then there would be hell to pay on her behalf.

Turning her attention back to Neri as she started going on about the impending search party caused her mind to shift gears with occasional thought still lingering on the fact that she was now alone with a cute woman who may have just flirted with her. Could she be really interested in Sera? Should she be revolted or happy by this? No wait focus on the search party dammit. Suddenly the question of the cargo came to light at the worst time.

"Uh, right well... um I didn't see anything besides were aren't supposed to know about... the um... deathstic- FETH!" The stumbling staccato of words was abruptly slammed by a expletive when Sera realize that she just revealed the contents. A defeated Sigh emanated from Sera as she gave and just answered the question.

"Alana just had to go and open one of the kriffing crates. In fact that one." Sera then pointed over the covered crate that she had just finished moving. Quickly her flustered embarrassment was being replaced with her normal sense of perpetual annoyance. "I'm pretty sure the ditz was too high to find the button to seal the damn thing when I walked in on her. Anyways yeah the thing is full of deathstick and oddly enough supplies like the kind you pick up at a drug store, some of it even just looks like talcum powder or allergy med... Sera's mind drifted off as her mind started thinking it over. Something was off and she tried to remember something that was now eating at the corner of the mind it was about the Deathsticks. Something seemed off about them. Were they always that grey... no they were supposed to be more colorful right? Suddenly it seemed to Sera an instinct or maybe something learned either way it seemed like an intuition calling at her.

"There's something seriously wrong with that with stuff, and chances are this "random inspection" is trying to find exactly what we're carrying. Shite! Alright If they come down here and if we need to distract them lead them over to the coolant lines over by the third bulkhead. The only thing there is some booze I stashed away for a special occasion. That karking bastard over on Onderon better pay us well for this bs."

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
After several moments of venting out her negative headspace, Alana got to the point where she didn't feel at risk of hurting anyone; though she still felt a rift forming in her chest. Getting to her feet, she stared at herself in the mirror, drying her eyes with a hand towel as she tried to focus on the task at hand. Right, the inspection, they were getting boarded. Staring at her reflection in the mirror, she could see her eyes were a mixture of red and puffy, probably from the crying and death sticks. That was a tad annoying. Unaware of the conversation down below, Alana took out a small black handkerchief from her coat and wrapped it around her eyes. She could probably pass as a Miraluka, that'd probably be for the best, but she wasn't looking forward towards what that ruse would involve.

Alana took in a breath, gripping the side of the sink as she pushed her senses outward just as Kraud had taught her to do years ago. She could feel the ship around her, the image of it playing out in her mind as clear as if she could see it with her own eyes, though it was a foggy; probably from the death stick usage. Stepping back, Alana slid the door of the refresher open, stepping out and letting the door close behind her. She hated seeing the world like this, feeling the ship, the coldness of the metal, the purity of the air, it was just sensory overload. Alana pushed on into the cockpit, sliding into one of the passenger sits, as she awaited for the ship to be boarded. She could sense that another ship was moving towards them. The crucial moment was upon them, and Alana could already feel her patience slipping. Hopefully this would be over quickly.

@Powerfullhorus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43

Neri's brow furrowed the minute Sera mentioned deathsticks. It was usually hard to get something out of the black-haired woman. In stark contrast to herself, Sera actually knew when to keep her mouth shut. Therefore, it surprised the pilot with the white streak how easily she had gotten this out of her.

Her furrowed brow quickly made place for yet another grin, as Sera made a remark about Alana. "Adorable isn't it? She's just like a baby when she's high." Neri commented in turn. It was something she would abuse sooner or later, given how easily Alana could be persuaded in this state.

Once her companion concluded that they were, in fact, in over their heads now, Neri placed her hand on Sera's shoulder. "Relax. I'll handle it." she said confidently. After a couple of minutes, the ship shuddered as a docking tube connected to the Hetzer. Shortly after, three HCSF officers boarded their ship. Like the Bespinian pilot had expected, the boarding party consisted entirely of women. The Hapan Consortium was a slightly sexist matriarchy; chances of any men being present were low.

Urging Sera to follow her, Neri approached the three women. Two of them were armed, while the one in the middle had a scanning device. "Hi!" she began with an innocent smile. "The name's Neriya Dahle, I'm the pilot of the Hetzer. This is our captain, Sera Jex." her introduction didn't impress the officers in the slightest. The woman who stood in the middle responded. "Captain Tilas. And we're not here for pleasantries. Show us your cargo and we'll hopefully be on our way soon." Neri nodded, gesturing at the many crates stacked by the third bulkhead. "Do as you like." Tilas' lips curled in a smile. "We will." she turned to the officer on her right. "Arlene, guide them to the cockpit." Before Neri could protest, the woman grabbed her and Sera by the arms. "We don't want anyone interfering in our investigation." she stated, forcing both women up the ladder.

"Okay I might not have this under control.." she muttered, keeping her voice low so that only Sera would hear her comment.


@Algarus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
Adorable wasn't necessarily the word that first came to Sera's mind. The words that came to her mind were stuff like problematic, troublesome, and a decadent pain in her ass. The sooner that girl got clean the better in Sera's simple opinion. It was times like this where the insane force sensitive prone to hallucinations, and outbursts felt like she was the most grounded of the three, as ridiculous of sentence that was. She certainly wasn't buying the whole 'trust me m'kay' act from Neri either. That woman was eventually going to find herself in so much trouble that not even Sera and Alana could bail her out alone one of these days. Still she could have that talk later. She steeled herself for incoming boarding party trying to conjure up the best happy facade she could manage... which wasn't much.

Following Neri she would see the three women and immediately it was clear that they were no nonsense. Sera already felt intimidated trying to look cute. She would simply give a small hint of a smile and a wave. Really though she was on edge. Gritted teeth were hidden behind curled lips. Looking onward at Captain Tilas and the stick that she had lodged firmly up her ass. Sera decided to keep silent and let Neri handle things after all she was always the more sociable one.

Which promptly led to the two of them being carried off to the cockpit. A flicker of anger now returning back to the woman. Sera could tell that there was something off about this even if she rarely dealt with the law. Were they in on this or was this why that guy needed someone to do a no questions asked sketchy courier job? Either way there was going to be hell to pay. Neri sheepish comment only well fueled that.

"Oh Really? You seem positively commanding..." Sera whispered back with a heavy dose of sarcasm and snark. Still she made her way up the ladder and found in the cockpit was... a blindfolded Alana of all things. This day just kept getting stranger.

"Alana?" She couldn't help exasperate trying to think what the hell was up... oh. Oh no. Was she trying to pass as a Miraluka? Well [REDACTED]. Seeing Arlene follow Neri up the ladder she realized that she would have to explain things real quick.

"Right Arlene... This is Alana. The third crewmember of the Hetzer. Don't mind her she's been having a bad day." Sera quickly found herself praying to any deity that existed that Alana wouldn't find a way to kark this up as well. Realizing that the stoned and now cosplaying cowgirl might not hold up to scrutiny she tried to press the HCSF member about something on her mind.

This is the full crew which actually brings me to something I've been wanting to ask. What the hell is going on? You demand to board, separate us from the ship like we're already prisoners and then start searching around MY ship without so much as a warrant. So you better give me a good reason why I should keep smiling and going along with this karking malarkey."

Ok maybe getting angry wasn't the smartest decision but sometimes you just had to go with something and hope it sticks.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 

Alana Calloway

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Algarus
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
112
Reaction score
99
Alana felt her friends approaching, as well as the officer that was escorting them, and felt that this was not going to go well. Someone was going to have to die before the day was over. She just hoped that it would come to that, maybe a non-lethal approach could be adopted instead. Alana could sense her friends nearing, they were at the door now.

She only sensed one officer, but she knew there was a second she had sensed from the initial docking. That was problematic. She could hear Sera's surprise in her voice, as she fumbled through some explanation, though the officer-Arlene was it- didn't seem to buy it. The situation was only made worse by Sera pushing for an explanation, to which Alana could sense Arlene was growing infuriated. "You're being isolated to prevent tamper with the cargo Ms. Jax, so you can either cooperate, or I can call in for impound and detain your crew for the next week. That enough motivation for you?" Arlene asked, as she gave the most punch-able expression known to man out to Sera. The woman then turned her gaze in Alana's direction, and waved her hand in front of her face. "And what role does she have on this ship? She got a last name or something." Alana merely shook her head before speaking. "I'm the hired help officer, and I'm fully aware of what you're doing, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped that." She responded rather coldly, though she continued to look on ahead, trying not to lose her cool. Sera and Neri probably already gave this witch their identities, so starting anything was going to go really badly. "Well, does the hired help have a last name? Because I don't care how bad of a day you're having Ms. Alana, but I have a job to do." Alana wasn't sure what this woman's problem was, but she sure was bossy. "Anzari." She lied, hoping that a weird name like that would be enough to make the ruse work; though currently Alana couldn't tell. Suddenly, she lost her sensory abilities, as she was plunged into darkness now. Well feth. "You mind lifting that fold up Ms. Anzari? Not like you have something to hide right?" The officer pressed, as Alana felt herself being targeted once again. "It's rather insensitive to ask that of my people." Alana fired back quickly, maybe a bit too quickly. Maybe this plan wasn't so great after all.

@Powerfullhorus @Caught in Strangereal
 

Neriya Dahle

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Powerfullhorus
Joined
Jan 7, 2020
Messages
41
Reaction score
43

The sight of a blindfolded Alana nearly made Neri cry while laughing. She only barely managed to contain her laughter. What made it even better, was that Sera had to come up with some sort of explanation. ‘Having a bad day’ did not strike Neri as a good enough excuse, but perhaps Arlene would fall for it. Hapans were smart, but often arrogant. Chances were high that Arlene wouldn’t suspect that someone dared lying to HCSF officer.

With a wide grin on her face, Neri moved around Sera and went straight for Alana. The blindfolded woman sat in the passenger seat, completely relaxed. How could she possibly let a chance like this slide?

The woman with the white streak partly listened to Sera’s tirade; her focus was fully on Alana. Without warning, Neri took place on Alana’s lap, putting an arm around her. She didn’t care that the white-haired cowgirl was in conversation with Arlene. No, this was all part of her plan. She would let Alana and Sera do the talking for now; there was something else that required her attention.

From her position on Alana’s lap, she could reach one of the Hetzer’s control panels, which happened to be just the one she needed. With her arm around Alana, Arlene wouldn’t be able to see whatever the Bespinian pilot was doing. Cautiously, she flipped some of the Hetzer’s switches, barely reaching them as she leaned closer to Alana. Once the pilot believed she had the right settings ready, she jumped back in the conversation.

“Why does your job include staring in miss Anzari’s eyes?” she asked, slightly repositioning herself on Alana’s lap, so she could reach the final switch. “Aren’t you supposed to stare at the cargo instead?”

As she flipped the final switch, the entire ship suddenly went dark. The emergency lights activated seconds later, but due to Neri’s meddling, they were too dim for the light-sensitive Hapans to see anything. This was confirmed by the loud cursing of Arlene and the surprised cries coming from the cargohold. “Whoops..” Neri exclaimed. “Must’ve been the droid… told you it was dysfunctional.”


@Caught in Strangereal @Algarus
 

Sera Jex

Character
Independent
Rank
Citizen

Character Profile
Link
OOC
Caught in Strangereal
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
56
Reaction score
67
Sera found that she could only bite her lip in frustration. These hapans just had to have things their way don't they? Well it looked getting mad wasn't going to do anything so she found she had to do one thing she hated most: swallow her pride. "Sorry..." Thankfully her spiel got cut off by Arlene's inquiry into alana and her cosplaying nonsense. Thank kark. She was now working up the words to defend Alana and gas light Arlene into believing this lie when she noticed Neri sit on Alana lap. A flurry of jealousy now filling the unstable woman's mind. She was now clenching her jaw shut so tightly that it felt like her teeth could snap.

Thankfully the bespinian was using this lewd behavior for a purpose other than annoying Sera. Noticing the her fingers move and begin to mess around it was distraction time. Without thinking about her hand moved up and waved slowly from side to side.

"Arlene that's as offensive as me asking you to undress." Arlene seemed to stumble a half step as she processed that statement before suddenly snapping back ready to retort when suddenly the lights died.

"Hey who turned out the ligh- NIMS!" Sera got up quickly from her chair and walked to the NM droid. "What did I tell, Do I need to do another scrub of your power management processing core?" beep-bip-bop "What do you mean you overvolted the light control circuits? Ugh!"

Sera feigned throwing all the technically correct jargon she could muster to build a convincing lie. Hopefully that would work... hopefully.

@Algarus @Powerfullhorus
 
Top