Bringing the Pieces Together

[Chask274]

ILS Desolator
1300 hours
Ziost Orbit

His boots loudly clacked against the deck plating as Vaxus strode down the corridor towards the hangar. Dressed in his armored flightsuit with the helmet tucked under one arm, the Zabrak was grinning to himself. After countless hours spent combing the Legion's archives, he'd found some basic information on the woman who took his leg. Nothing too noteworthy, unfortunately, just a short list of potential aliases she'd been known to use, and the file mentioned a few incidents where she'd been spotted acting against Imperial interests. However, there was a significant portion of the file that was inaccessible to him for some reason. He eventually found out the reason it was redacted was connected to the late Darth Vanus, so he arranged for a trip to Rhen Var to see if her personal archives could shed some light on the mysterious woman.

He wouldn't be traveling to the frozen tundra of a planet alone, as his friend and XO Kalen Genet would be coming with as well. Reaching the hangar, he did a final pre-flight check of the shuttle they'd be taking to the frozen world, then activated his comlink. "Ship's ready to depart when once you get down here, Kalen."

@Prudence

 

[Prudence]

The world looked so peaceful when you looked down on it from above. Spinning through space, a mottled mix of greys and light blues with the occasional dots of light mixed in Ziost almost looked like a malleable ball of clay. That definition couldn't be further from the truth when describing the planet which had brought Kalen into this life. It was harsh, cold, and unforgiving. Ziost never changed, not in a year, nor in a thousand. The planet either forged those upon its surface into the fiercest warriors in the galaxy, or spat them out into the stars to be disposed of. The irony of its peace was not lost on him, nor was it lost on the collection of ensigns around him. Commanding them to stand by the viewport with him, Kalen pointed eagerly at distant points of light, "Ye see, that's where I snogged my first girlfriend. Missed 'er lips the first time, accidentally found her ear. We didn't last much longer after that."

His finger eagerly pressed at another speck of light, "And right there, that's one of the best places to eat on that hellforsaken rock. Food's usually warm, and the barmaid's missing eye doesn't bug ye too much after a bit."

"I see Commander..." one of the ensigns was beginning, "That's really very interesting, but I think we have to get back to our duti-"

"Nonsense!" Kalen said, shaking his head, "I'm the XO. You'll be fine. Now right there, that's the best race tra-"

His comlink chirped, interrupting the speech he'd been giving to the younger officers, and a collective sigh of relief came from them. As he raised the device he heard Vaxus's voice, alerting him that their shuttle was ready to depart. Tucking the comlink away he sighed to the ensigns, "Unfortunately lads, it looks like I'll have to depart now. Each of you should go down there though, check out the places I was mentioning." he eyed two young NCOs, a male and a female, and gave a wink, "Might even find my snogging spot useful."

Without another word Kalen departed the bridge pulling his helmet on, and found himself weaving through the ILS Desolator until he reached the hangar. He saw Vaxus waiting for him, and pulled his helmet off, and gave the man a nod. From his helmet, one could hear the music that Kalen had been listening to. "Don't really understand why it is that you're wanting to go freeze yer one good leg off on that manda forsaken world, but whatever suits you Vax."

 

[Chask274]

Lowering the boarding ramp, Vaxus was about to enter the small ship when Kalen finally arrived. As the Mandalorian approached, Vaxus returned his nod with a grin, noting the music blaring from Kalen's helmet. "Well, at least you're playing one of the more tolerable songs in your collection." He turned and headed up the ramp into the ship, looking over his shoulder after Kalen's last comment. "The fact that I have only one good leg is precisely why we're going to Rhen Var. The bitch that took my leg off evidently had ties to Darth Vanus in some way. So, I figured we might as well go raid her personal archives before they're destroyed, see what info can be found."

Taking the pilot's seat, Vax sealed the ramp after Kalen got onboard and started the takeoff sequence, guiding the ship out of the hangar. "So, what's this I hear about you becoming Grand Moff? Never took you to be an administrative type of guy."

 

[Prudence]

Kalen's face drew up in offense, his eyes widening towards Vaxus as he walked alongside the man, "Don't diss my music, mate. This music makes killers." Letting his faux offense go he cracked a smile towards the captain as they entered the ship. The man's reasoning was pretty solid, and he couldn't argue with that logic. Kalen, thankfully, had all of his limbs and if a Jedi tramp had removed one of his more preferred ones he likely would've been doing much the same as Vaxus. "Fair enough. Let's go freeze our asses off for your revenge. Aye Aye captain."

He fell into the seat copilot's seat beside Vaxus and began firing up alternative systems, and plotting their jump as Vaxus handled the actual piloting. "Ah yes. After we lost Barr I stepped up to fill his shoes. One thing turned into another and I found myself with a few extra rank squares pinned on my chest." He shrugged and gave a 'what can you do?' smile and then looked back to the console. Content that the coordinates were plotted he leaned back and propped his feet up on the console.

"How's the prosty getting along for you? Doesn't it like... need oil?"

 

[Chask274]

Now clear of the hangar, Vaxus kicked the sublights up to full power, and sent the shuttle streaking towards open space. The Mandalorian's quick rise through the ranks did make some sense. "Yeah, I heard about Barr jumping ship to go join up with the Dominion. A pity, he was a good fighter." Seeing that Kalen had finished plotting their course, Vax reached over and triggered the hyperdrive, then leaned back in his seat and sighed.

"It's doing fine, the stump has finally stopped aching constantly, and I got the responsiveness tweaked just right. I can't tell you how many times I've crushed the foot pedals in my fighter, it's kinda funny actually. As for taking care of it, the thing is surprisingly low maintenance, just need to keep the servos clean and properly aligned."

The Zabrak stayed silent for a few moments, then looked over at Kalen. "You wouldn't happen to have any experience fighting Force users, would you?"

@Prudence

 

[Prudence]

Kalen fished under his seat and brought forth a bag of jala'space'o chips, ripping the crinkling bag open and jamming a hand inside. He stuffed his mouth with the chips, chewing noisily with his mouth open, "Oh fek Barr." he mumbled through mouthfuls, "Got made into stumpy the tin can by that Jedi on Onderon." Then looking over and realizing that Vaxus, too, had lost his leg to a Jedi on Onderon he backpedaled, "Though the stump look is nice on some people."

Hearing his remarks about the prosthetic and how to keep it cleaned he whistled, "Can imagine that'd be nasty getting yer foot stepped on." He shot his hand in the bag again and found he'd finished off all of the c'hips and let out a silent curse, "Yea I've fought some before. Buncha hokey wizards, the lot of them. Nothing special. You lookin' for a round two then?"

 

[Chask274]

Vaxus shot a death glare at Kalen for a moment, only to crack a sly grin when he brought up stepping on people. "Oh yeah, it's not fun for anyone when that happens." His expression then hardened, "Fek yeah I'm looking for round two. My life got seriously screwed over by her. Not only was there the physical pain and loss of my leg, but there was a lot of mental shit going on too. Did you know that they weren't gonna let me return to active duty? They were just going to let me sit there, doing absolutely, all because I couldn't afford a prosthetic and they were too fekking stingy to cover the cost for me."

Vax's voice had taken on a bitter tone at this point, and he clenched a hand into a fist in anger at the memory. "I spent a week laying in a hospital, thinking that my life as I'd known it, everything that made me who I am, was getting flushed down the drain because that Jedi blew my leg off. By the time some friends of mine managed to scrape the finds together, I was ready to tear someone's throat out, and I knew just who it'd be."

 

[Prudence]

Kalen pursed his lips, shaking his head as he looked over to Vax. He hadn't known about how they'd tried to shaft the Zabrak, nor did he know about the mental trauma the Zabrak had suffered. He let out a low whistle as he began to speak, "It sounds like you definitely got shafted mate. I don't blame you for wanting your round two. I'm with ya till the end, captain." Kalen gave a mock salute as he leaned back into his chair. "I understand mental shit goin' on. My ex just strolled back into the Legion... under my command. Apparently she was married when we were together?" Kalen shrugged, "I don't even know what I'm going to do there."

Looking back towards the viewport he cocked an eyebrow, "what are you hoping to find on Rhen Var?"

 

[Chask274]

Listening to Kalen, a small grin appeared on Vaxus' face. It was nice to know there was was someone who would have his back on this. However, before he could express any gratitude, the Mandalorian mentioned his own recent troubles, drawing a sympathetic wince and chuckle from the pilot. "Oooh, that sucks. I can't imagine how awkward that situation is, hope it works out for you."

Looking over at one of the consoles, he noted that they'd arrive at their destination within the next half hour. "I'm hoping to get some concrete info on this Jedi chick. Her file in the Legion records is bare bones, and I couldn't access what info the Sith had on her, although I gathered enough to realize Vanus had some history with her. I just hope her archives haven't been messed with, otherwise finding the Jedi isn't going to be easy."

 

[Prudence]

"Would you fekkin tell me about it?" Kalen Muttered as he got comfortable in his seat. He enjoyed this. Sitting around shooting the breeze with Vaxus. The man had proved to be a good friend in an army that hosted a lot of... interesting characters. He crossed his arms and pinched his eyes shut. Now was his turn to wince as Vaxus reminded him why it was that the two of them were traveling to Rehn Var.

"Oh yeah that's right. Revenge.. blah blah... Honor... blah blah... Stumpy... Gotcha." He let out a little laugh as he started to drift to sleep, "Wake me up when we get there Vax."

 

[Chask274]

Rolling his eyes at his XO while smiling, Vax returned his attention back to the controls. "Alright, man, will do."

Sometime later...

The shuttle dropped out of lightspeed with little incident, and was soon streaking it's way into the icy planet's upper atmosphere. As the ship gently rocked from the turbulent, Vax reached over and smacked Kalen on the shoulder. "We're here, get up ya lazy ass." Vax finished guiding the ship through atmospheric reentry, then set course for Vanus' former stronghold. After a few minutes, the fortress came into visual range, and Vaxus transmitted his clearance codes and opened a comm line to the facility. "This is Commander Vaxus Tallav coming in on an approach vector at bearing one-zero, requesting permission to land. Myself and Grand Moff Genet are here to inspect the facility and see what the Empire can do with it."

There was a frantic shuffling of papers on the other end of the comm line before a man cleared his throat and responded. "Acknowledged, Commander. Maintain your current heading, you've been cleared to land at pad 3." Giving his thanks, Vax cut the line and smoothly landed the ship. Standing up, he tucked his helmet under one arm and gestured towards the back of the ship. "Alright, let's get this show on the road."