[RoS: Escalation] Bacta Pirates? (Restorers)

Tisto Kingang
Rhylance
Tra’an Reith
Lucine Vasano
Urie

Nal Hutta
2 Days Ago

“Look bud,” The Kiffar sighed, pointing to his newest acquisition, the very beaten down T-5 Deliverance sitting on the docking pad. “I need to get new transponder codes for my ship here. The fraking Tenixir Revenants almost shot me down a few days back. So I just need some neutral codes.”

The Sullustan mechanic Tisto was talking to just nodded. “That should only take a few hours. And you have no interest in fixing up the blast marks? I doubt most people would recognize what it is you are flying.”

“I will take whatever repairs you can also have done in the same time frame. For twenty five hundred credits,” Tisto sighed. I am not really cut out for this mercenary work. But the Principate is paying well. “Another five hundred if you make sure the cargo bays are secure and don’t touch the swoop in the front most bay. And my protocol droid will watch over the ship while I am out of your hair.”

The mechanic nodded. “I will see what it is I can do,” he explained. “But you are going to end up with whatever I have on hand and not T-5 parts. As for your droid and swoop, well it’s up to you of course. But I will need a downpayment of course.”

“If you can, set the name of the ship to Lucky Lucia.” Tisto said as a last request.

“That will take another fifteen minutes to get the transponder codes to identify the ship as well.”

The shockboxer frowned and handed over a credstick with around two thousand credits on it. He didn’t like it but he hadn’t exactly stopped off to get individual credits on his way in. Without another word he left the shop. Taking the ship hadn’t been too difficult thanks to the intel he had gotten. It had been relatively undefended by the Revenant’s when he broke into it and stole it. Almost had enough time to fly it over and save those stupid harmonist troops while I was at it. Then again, I’m not getting paid for that.

Nal Hutta wasn’t exactly where he had wanted to land, but it was much quieter than Nar Shaddaa. While it was not as easy to keep a low profile because of it, everyone knew criminals ran Nar Shaddaa. Dropping down to the planet itself instead of the smuggler’s moon would undoubtedly buy him some time if the Revenants did decide to come after him for the ship. Not to mention, maybe, being able to trust the mechanic not to just sell the ship for scrap the second I turn my back.

Tisto’s comlink went off as he wandered around. Without checking to see who it was he picked up. “Hey Diy,” he said before the other side could answer. “You missed an amazing ship nabbing while playing around with those pirates.”

“Diy?” That was a very different voice, and one Tisto couldn’t forget, though he had long since forgotten the person’s name.

“Alright Clothes Woman, how did you get the number for this channel?” he asked, instantly suspicious.

“Clothes Woman,” the familiar voice almost purred. He did not have fond memories of this woman. “Forgotten me already darling?”

“Did my frakking best to repress every memory of you I have from that night,” He responded bluntly. “So tell me how you got this number or I will…”

“You will what? Find me?” Tisto narrowed his eyes at that as she laughed, even though the gesture was futile.

“The threat sounded better in my head. And you still aren’t answering my question. I will ask you a third time now, how did you get the number for this?” Tisto did his best to hide his own amazement at the feat. He changed the number for long distance communications regularly.

“You are working for the Restorers faction, aren’t you? I have to wonder, since you did just mention stealing a ship.”

“What do you want for your silence on that?” Tisto grimaced. It had been so long since he had talked to anyone over comms other than Diy, that his own recklessness just put him in her power.

“Two things. What kind of ship did you steal?”

“A T-5. From the enemy if that helps shut you up.”

“Excellent. And from how quickly you answered the call I can see you are not in prison this time. Meet me on Dandoran once you are done with whatever work you are getting done to the ship. An associate and I are getting a crew together.”

Tisto frowned. He had only just gotten off that rock. Luckily the ship had a good hyperdrive, and the trek should only take a few hours if properly charted. Not to mention the droidbrain in the ship. I really did pick the right T-5 to take afterall.

Tisto sighed to himself as he hung up on Lucine. Working with her last time had been a nightmare of boredom and clothes shopping. Whatever she was planning was sure to be a nightmare. Frakking idiot, if you had just checked who was calling, you wouldn’t have given her blackmail material!

UPCS Providence
2 days ago

Lucine allowed herself a quiet chuckle as she closed the voice-only connection. “Clothes Woman,” she repeated in amazement as she reclined back on the silk sheets of her sumptuous bed. “Can you imagine?”

“Not everyone bothers to memorize the vital statistics of everyone they meet,” Her bedmate murmured dryly.

The redhead gave Rhylance a sweet smile. “All the better for me. If Tisto was paying more attention, then he would not be dangling on my string right now.”

She swiped her fingers across the screen of her datapad, scanning her private messages for any new updates. Finally, she found what she was looking for: a curt message from and anonymous source. “Ah. And I also would not have been able to so easily procure the ‘special supplies’ that we needed for this particular job.” She gave her lover a triumphant smile as she turned the device to show him the delivery information.

“Well done,” Rhylance said as he took the datapad to examine the message. “You do work quickly.”

“When I am suitably motivated,” Lucine purred. The smile on her face matched that of the loth cat that had eaten every canary on the planet.

She cuddled up against him with a satisfied sigh. “Now, it is your turn. We need two more people with very specific skills for this gambit to work. If I recall, you promised to deliver them.”

“And so I shall. I have just the people in mind.”

“Excellent!” Lucine murmured. She took the datapad back, before resting a pale hand on his cheek and giving him a smoldering look. “I do believe this is going to be most entertaining.”

Several hours went by before Rhylance made his way to his ship, the UPCS - Providence. Aboard his vessel, the Chiss was assisted by his faithful assistant droid, M.O.R.S.E. The two of them searched backlogged messages for the two names he needed for this venture.

“Master Rhylance, do you feel this is the best way to spend our time? Working with this Severian Principate?” M.O.R.S.E. asked in its gender neutral tone.

“Our business dictates the Prinicipate victory is a far better outcome than the pirates. Lucine agrees with this outcome as well,” Rhylance answered as he located the information he required. “Not to mention any pirates we capture would make wonderful tools for my experiments.”

“But that is what I mean, sir. Can you really trust Lady Vasano’s judgment? Perhaps her priorities do not align with yours. Or perhaps her dim-wittedness will cause us more grief.”

Rhylance gave M.O.R.S.E. a look that told the droid to back off of the subject. The Chiss was well aware of the history his lover and droid held. It was quite the annoyance to Rhylance, his droid seeming the primary offender.

“Now, onto more relevant discussions. We must get in touch with our old friend Tra’an Reith di Plagia, and our new associate Eun-Sil Urie. They will be most useful in our Consul’s plan.”

“At once, Master Rhylance. It will be done. I shall draft up the messages immediately.”

“Ensure the correct details and coordinates are given as well. We wish not to anger our ‘friends’ if at all possible,” Rhylance informed as he went to work in his ship’s laboratory. A strange and rarely seen creature lay paralyzed upon an operating table, awaiting the doctor’s work to begin. A row of tools sat off to one side. “Our teamwork must go smoothly for this assignment to proceed correctly.”

“I will compose the messages to your standards.”

“Perfect,” Rhylance spoke as he picked up a scalpel to make the initial incision. A grin of satisfaction spread across his face as he made his cut, a red trail forming along the line. Today was a good day for science.

Tra’an Reith was meditating while the Onyx completed the last leg of its flight toward the criminal moon of Nar Shadaa. In his hold layan encrypted Imperial data pad that supposedly would lead him to a cache of Jedi weapons seized in the aftermath of Order 66. He sensed a disturbance right before his holocom rang. It warned him that this would be dangerous, and yet he answered anyways.

“Hello Rhylance. It has been too long. To what do I owe the pleasure of your contact?” the Kaleesh hissed out.

“I need you for a job. I need you to help us protect a ship, I know it i’s not your normal job, but I think you wi’ll find the challenge involved most rewarding,” the mad Doctor replied. “You can even bring along that droid of yours. It will get its fill of murder on this job.”

“I’m fairly certain that is not possible,” Tra’an laughed. “Even then, I am always willing to bring it along, and it will most certainly relish the opportunity to soak in the blood of sentients.” He stood and stretched. “Send me the details, and we’ll be along shortly.”

Rhylance clicked off without saying anything further, and the information began to cross, with a set of coordinates and a timestamp.

With a grin, and the soft maniacal cackle of the HK droid in his ear, Tra’an manipulated the controls of the Onyx and leapt to hyperspeed to meet his erstwhile contact.