“Right. You first, Mr. Fonhill,” Tressyn ordered, almost shoving Andrelious into the body scanner. The device beeped, scanning the Warlord from head to toe. The scanner beeped again, indicating that it found some metal, but the monitor displayed that all that it had found were parts of the Sith’s clothing. It was even of a high enough quality to identify that Andrelious’ E-11 was indeed armed with blanks.
“You’re clean. Not that I’d expect the help to be carrying anything anyway,” Tressyn stated, ushering Kooki onwards. The scanner again found nothing of note.
“Well. You certainly take the security here very seriously. I’m surprised you’re in need of my services,” Kooki observed.
“There’s a good reason for that, Missy,” a gruff voice said from some nearby shadows. Kooki and Andrelious could both sense that somebody was indeed lurking there, as if to watch new arrivals carefully.
Tressyn aimed a thumbs up into the shadows. A second man, one dressed in a few pieces of Stormtrooper armour that had been painted black, stepped out, greeting the ‘Fonhill’ couple with a nod.
“Random men in the shadows. Definitely very secure,” the female stated.
“Tressyn. Perform the lockdown. Then we can explain exactly who we are. And what we’re really doing,” the armoured man ordered.
Tressyn nodded and pressed his hand against a nearby scanner, before pressing a few buttons on the adjoining control panel.
“Command accepted, Tressyn. Lockdown online,” the computer confirmed.
“Ok. We’re impressed now. But we really don’t need to be locked in,” ‘Buzzla’ chimed.
Andrelious’ face fell. “Indeed! Fonhill Training is a reputable company! You have no right to-” he began, before silencing himself when he noticed his spouse’s icy glare.
“Excuse my assistant’s rudeness. Still, he has a point.” Kooki interjected.
Tressyn and his apparent superior gestured towards a small office nearby. Kooki took a seat, allowing Andrelious to sit next to her. The two other men sat down on the other side of a desk that was taking up more than half of the room.
“I’ll cut to the chase, Fonhill. There’s a very good reason we called you in. Ares is far more than just another security company. That’s just what the Imps think. What we’re really doing here is a little more professional,” the armoured man explained.
“Oh? Such as?” ‘Buzzla’ questioned.
“Pretty much anything. So long as our clients have the money,” Tressyn answered. “Brank there is our Captain. I’m one of his deputies and the public face of Ares. Brank’s hot property, shall we say.”
Kooki smirked. Things were developing nicely.
-x-
After a surprisingly good night’s sleep, the ‘Fonhill’ couple awoke bright and early. Today, they would meet the rest of Brank’s command structure, as well as the men and women that ‘Buzzla’ was supposed to be training.
Andrelious sleepily poured the pair a mug of steaming caff each. He handed one to Kooki, not saying anything: he suspected the room was bugged. The Alderaanian quickly drank half of the drink whilst getting dressed. Her ‘training’ outfit was a little more familiar to her: black leggings and a fitted black shirt, supposedly to allow her to move around with ease. Andrelious was given another suit to put on.
A knock at the door was followed by Tressyn and Brank wandering in uninvited just moments after ‘Bankar’ had finished getting dressed.
“Nice to see you’re ready. Now, Buzzla, we don’t need your employee in for this meeting, so he can busy himself with whatever you have him doing,” Brank began.
“But Buzzla needs me in there. You don’t mind, really,” Andrelious responded, waving his hand.
“Buzzla needs him in there, Brank. I’m sure you won’t mind, really,” Tressyn stated, almost tonelessly.
“Very well. If you would come this way, it’s time you met my best,” Brank instructed. Kooki and Andrelious followed, looking around the corridor and spotting several security devices, mainly cameras and small turrets. After a short journey, Brank turned into a large room.
“This is the rest of my senior team,” he declared, gesturing over to a small group that were waiting around a large table. “And this is Mrs. Buzzla Fonhill. She’ll be training some of our new intake,” Brank continued.
“So. You going to tell me who you are?” Kooki questioned, maintaining Buzzla’s Outer Rim accent perfectly.
A green skinned Twi’lek clambered out of his seat first. “I am Gr’eev. I’m in charge of external operations,” he said.
A female Human, the same size as Kooki, was next. “The name’s Lolaz. I’m the best slicer you’ll meet. I make sure things here are kept nice and secretive from the Imps,” she declared.
Finally, a Rodian, whose gender wasn’t obvious, introduced themselves as Jeeda.
“Now that you’ve met my team, and I know you’re not going anywhere, it’s time we explained what’s going on here. Recently, we’ve had a lead about a strange organisation out in the middle of nowhere. Obviously we’d normally ignore such rumours, but we’ve heard that a large portion of the membership of this group are able to use the Force. We also believe there’s bounties on quite a few of their members from various sources. In short, we’re trying to find out more before we strike,” Brank explained matter of factly.
“O…k…” Kooki managed.
“That’s where you come in. Lolaz did some digging. Turns out your little company has been involved in a scuffle or two with some Jedi types. We didn’t think you’d actually carry their sabers with you, though,” Brank continued.
“Yeah. So we’d like you to train our men in how to shoot a Jedi,” Gr’eev added.
‘Buzzla’ feigned surprise so perfectly that even her husband was fooled. “I didn’t know you’d heard about that. Not that Banky there was any use,” she responded.
“Very well, then, Buzzla. We’ll leave you to get started. Your first class will be in an hour’s time. Do you have any questions?” Brank queried.
“Just one. You’re clearly very active. How do you operate right here on Bastion without the Imperials becoming suspicious?” Kooki ventured.
Lolaz raised her hand. “I’ll cover that one. Our base’s communications all go through a single hub computer. That encrypts everything so it looks like legit business by Ares Security Solutions,” she explained.
Very clever girl. Andrelious thought to himself, wondering if Saskia could manage such a feat.
I agree. Time to start thinking of a plan, Kooki responded, the Force allowing her to speak to her spouse secretly.
