Open Scouting the Stars

[Neeka Wren]

Location: Mandalorian Space - Clan Wren Territory​

Twirling a knife was, most decidedly, far more difficult than twirling a blaster.

For one, a good deal of her blasters had trigger guards so the main trick to the unnecessary spinning was making sure the safety was engaged or that you simply didn’t accidentally shoot yourself in the face. Or the wall, that one time.

For two, the weight of a vibrodagger was notably different from that of a blaster and it made it necessary to use different hand movements altogether. It was, however, much fancier looking and didn’t run the risk of accidentally misfiring a hole through her shuttle.

“That’d probably be the most shameful death ever.” She said to her uncooperating blade that was now lying flat in her hand. Neeka Wren heaved a sigh and once again hovered her eyes over beeping, illuminated panels as she checked the status of the vessel and any alerts that may have cropped up. Surprise of surprises, there was nothing flying around the relatively isolated space in Neeka’s assigned sector of Mandalorian territory. Her directive was scouting and given her smuggler past, the young warrior had been given permission to deviate as needed from her patrol. The sad fact was nothing really ever happened around here. Even around Krownest, pilots tended to not venture close unless absolutely necessary. Still. Someone had to do the checking, right?

Neeka’s thumb flicked a switch and her communications suite crackled to life, immediately blaring some sort of current events announcement that was being broadcasted in Huttese. She groaned. “Can’t anyone talk about anything besides wermal nudes? Haar’chak!” Her bad habit of talking to nothing and no one while on patrol was at least useful for practicing her Mando’a.



All at once, her console demanded her attention. A beeping noise had Neeka re-engaging the sensors quickly and taking a firm stance upon her pilot’s seat, immediately becoming deadly serious.

Someone was flying through Mandalorian space.

“Now who the hell are you, I wonder…?” Neeka pondered aloud at the flashing dot making its way across her screen. It wouldn’t be long before they were in visual range…and surely she had been detected in return.

 

[Rix Braji]

The competition among vultures in Hutt Space could be overwhelming, so naturally Rix decided to jump into hyperspace to seek out salvage in a different sector. He thought he might find some military grade junk floating around in the outskirts of imperial space. Years ago he’d failed to pay attention to his studies and didn’t realize that he was flying into Mandalorian territory.

After coming out of hyperspace a few days ago, Rix noticed a billow of smoke rising from his hyperdrive. He’d been spending most of his time in this sector tinkering away at it trying to get it back online, but there were a couple of bad parts that would have to be replaced.

“Sensors indicate a nearby shuttle-class vessel in our trajectory,” stated LE-90, a bipedal repair droid sitting in the cockpit with Rix.

“Oh yea? Maybe we can get some parts for our hyperdrive from it, some shuttles ha—”
“Clarification: the vessel is operational.”
“Oh…”

Rix cleared his throat and took a deep breath. Most of his contact with others out in the middle of space these days were less than pleasant.

It would be better to make introductions before getting into view of the neighboring ship. He took it upon himself to hail them with a pre-recorded message that would open should they accept his traffic.

“Hello. I’m just passing through, looking for scrap—not trouble.”

@Roobi

 

[Neeka Wren]

The Mandalorian's finger hovered over the switch to initiate long-range communications. She was just a scout and her orders were clear: if anyone was invading the orbit near Krownest then her clan was to be immediately alerted. Yet as Neeka stared out of her shuttle's cockpit at the salvage freighter, she could not help but hesitate.

Memories began to crowd up the space in her helmet quickly at the sight of the cargo-hauling vessel that was still cruising closer to her. It wasn't the same model or even quite the same type as her Starsong had been, but the function was largely the same and even the shape was similar. It was damn near a ghost from the past come to haunt her and Neeka's heart leapt into her throat when a male voice crackled onto her comm. For a moment, she had thought it was her brother.


The message ended and managed to shake her out of her temporary stupor, bringing Neeka crashing back to the present. Behind her visor, she scowled and flicked a different switch to return the hail and establish a full line of communication between the ships. The upper part of her fully armored torso would flicker into view upon the other vessel's holo, unless blocked or otherwise prevented.

"Gar hokaanir'gota, aruetii!" Neeka spat out into the comm with her most Mando-y voice regardless of if she were even answered or not. "Cut your engines or turn around and space out of here, scav! There's no loot for you here."

It was only then that she noticed the trailing coming from what she assumed was the ship's hyperdrive, based on her own prior knowledge of freighters.


"...aww, osik. It's gonna be one of those days, isn't it?"

@Sharp

 

[Rix Braji]

Rix didn’t understand or recognize the mandalorian language, but he could feel the bite in their tone. Luckily basic followed, but the pilot in the shuttle’s words were’t what he wanted to hear.

“Damn it!” Rix said. He slammed his fist onto the rust brown casing of his flight controls, which gave a dull echoing thud. A bobblehead of a bith playing a fanfar shook up and down. “Who do they think they are bossing me around on a shuttle?”

“It is likely that they are a scout,” LE-90 replied.

Rix sighed. “Could this day get any worse?”

With the ship now in visual range, he halted acceleration but didn’t cut his engines off as requested. He stood up and left the droid in the co-pilot seat, making his way out of the cockpit and towards the central chamber of his ship and climbed up into the controls of the fore lazer.

He made use of forwarding from his CZ-MF headset to the ship’s communications to speak to the other pilot.

“Listen, I get it. This is your sector of the galaxy and you don’t want to share. I’d be happy to turn around but as you can probably see I’ve got some problems with my hyperdrive. I’m going to be frank with you— I am not about to cut my engines and risk losing everything without a fight.”

He paused to let that sink in. Despite the sternness of his voice a bead of sweat was dripping from his hairline down his forehead and over the left side of the visor he wore over his eyes.

“But the way I see it, if you escalate this we both lose. You’ll get shot down and whoever you are with will come and return the favor. Perhaps we can come to an arrangement? I am sure I can repair the problem if you give me some time, and I don’t mind if you supervise my activity from your ship over there. Chatting with me for awhile couldn't be worse than staring at the void like usual, yea?”

The old Hutt ‘fighting is bad for both of us’ approach. He breathed in deep, hoping that it would work.

 

[Neeka Wren]

The cold, expressionless visor attached to the armored body with hands still tightly clutching her shuttle's helm gave off a sinister look during the long stretch of silence that followed the spacer's explanation. He had not bothered to provide his own visuals so she could get a look at who she was even talking to, but that much was to be expected. The miles of space stretching between the two vessels seemed to crackle with tension.

Neeka opened her mouth, then shut it. Then did it again. The Mandalorian helm obscured the myriad of expressions that played over her face during those few moments. She knew the right answer to this interaction. It was what any of her clan would tell her to do. They would tell her that she had already given plenty of warning and this was the time to summon her brothers and sisters.

Yet still Neeka hesitated. Her instincts told her that the threat to her home was minimal, though her mind said this could very well be a trick. Blasted conscience. Always getting in the way of what was smartest.


"Sure are confident, aren't we? Think you can take me out before the Fangs arrive? I kinda wanna see." Neeka uttered a giggle over the holocomm and let the apprehension sit for a moment longer.

"...look, neither of us want to end up as space dust today, I bet. 'cept you can probably see why i'd be cautious just as I can figure why you'd be the same. At this point we're gonna have to either trust each other a bit or start shootin'. Tell me what's going on with your engines and hyperdrive- maybe I can help you fix it. Wouldn't be my first. So! Let's do this in person, yeah?"

Neeka then began a slow thrust forward, moving at an unaggressive pace with the intention of docking onto his ship. It was obvious that she'd volunteered for her own benefit; being aboard the spacer's vessel was the most practical way to ensure that he wasn't playing her. Her shuttle was no match for the freighter...but in person, the Mandalorian might just have the advantage she wanted.


And if he said no, she could always call the Wren Fighters anyway.

@Sharp

 

[Rix Braji]

Although she couldn’t see it, Rix grinned when she taunted him. There was something disarming about the way she spoke, like she’d been in his shoes before. For a moment he felt a bit less tense.

Through his communicator LE-90 informed him that the shuttle had begun approaching at a slow pace. That’s right. This was a dangerous situation. Tension came pouring back in. Rix bit his lower lip and started pacing back towards the front of the ship to get a look for himself.

“Easy! Nice try but—”

As he arrived back at the cockpit, he found the visual of the person he was speaking with. Recognition of the armor. A mandalorian by the looks of it. Not the sort of people that Rix wanted to tangle with.

“Alright, I’m going to authorize the docking ring. The transfer circuits are malfunctioning. I was hoping to scavenge some parts, because in my experience once they start to go you have to keep repairing them over and over. A bit of wire work should get it good enough to get me out of your hair, and an extra hand who knows their way around a fusion cutter would speed things up.”

Rix had decided playing along was now his best chance of survival. Maybe she would arrest him on the spot, but dealing with Mandalorian retaliation seemed a lot less appealing.

Over his private comms he ordered LE-12 to lock up the cockpit and standby for his command. Then he made his way to the docking area to await her arrival. He rested his left against a utility belt at the waist of his khaki flight suit, gripping the handle of a sheathed combat fusion cutter.

 

[Neeka Wren]

There was a moment when Neeka was ready to take sudden evasive maneuvers and even halted her progress with fingers flexing upon the manual control. She was confident in her ability to avoid getting blasted to bits. Mostly.

Another stretch of silence between the two pilots filled the commlink with only the soft hum of both idling engines for some time. And then the stranger seemed to have decided to change his mind. Suspicion flooded Neeka once again and she clicked her tongue quietly.

"Easy enough, then. That'll just take time to bypass but by my figurin' that ought to get you far enough to reach a safe port." She let the warning hang in her words for a few more seconds. "Can't lie; it'll be a bumpy ride for you, though. Initiating docking sequence now."

As her shuttle automatically began to twist itself around and seal the two docking rings together into an airtight seal, Neeka finally made a decision. Her thumb flicked the switch it had previously been shy of and quickly the warrior was explaning the situation in halting Mando'a to Wren Stronghold. She did not summon reinforcements however, but instead requested that the fighters be sent out if too much time elapsed without any word from her. She was saying her farewells when a beep signaled the completion of the docking sequence.


The young Mandalorian then debated on how best to make this particular first impression. Her first instinct was to greet him with a blaster in his face and demand he disarm himself, but she was heading onto his territory. A smart freighter pilot would have already set up some tricks to gain the advantage. It's what she had done as one, after all.

In the end, the smartest thing to do seemed to be to trust in her vode and in her own strengths...which in this case meant removing her helmet and rapidly checking her appearance in a reflective surface. Neeka fussed over her hair, making sure it was just the right amount of tussled, positioned herself very carefully in front of the docking ring, and propped her helmet upon her hip.

Charm was much more likely to throw a potential attacker off-guard in this instance. Hell, it had worked before. Neeka intentionally batted her thick lashes down over her almost-indigo colored eyes right as the airlock finally hissed open.

Of course, she thought too late, this sorta thing definitely has blown up in my face before.

@Sharp