As Sirka's voice came over the Comms that the Devaronian was down, Elias popped out of cover with both pistols as his second visor fell into position. "Hell, it's about time." The visor's sight mode switched to magnetic before highlighting targets and the gunslinger went to work. Another Devaronian came out from behind his cover to take a shot at the smuggler, only to receive a shot to his chest for his trouble, killing him instantly. Another pirate, this one a Weequay, managed to fire two shots from his rifle at Elias, who ducked and spun under the shots and put two in their owner, one in his head and the other in his chest. Elias quickly became an embodiment of death where he aimed, keeping the pirates behind the giant lizard focused on him.

After a few more minutes, the remaining pirates broke and fled, many of them dropping their weapons first as they did so. The transport that had flown in, eager to steal the package, now left without it's ill-gotten cargo, the crew having apparently watched the firefight below. Elias, as the last Duros disappeared from the hangar helping a wounded human, raised his antenna mounted visor and sighed. "Well, that was a mess."

Orro hadn't even been able to leave his shuttle, before someone approached him. "Sir you have a transmission from Moff Aran Mortifus." One of the troopers said, with that said he showed Orro the message. "Moff Jacsen Orro, this is Moff Aran Mortifus. I am under attack from an unknown force and find myself on the backfoot. I request your aid with the defense of the Tanarus system and in return for it, I will align myself with you and help to convince the other remaining Moffs to do so. Once more, this is Moff Aran Mortifus asking for reinforcements. Orro looked at the message and chuckled. Apparently his fellow Moff's were noticing him, he had put all of his pieces in the right place. "Take the shuttle out of the hangar, and send a transmission to Zera to have two star destroyers meet us in the adjacent system so we can board." He said.
"Yes sir." The trooper replied, he left and went to carry out the Moff's orders. Soon enough once again they were underway, everything had called him away so much that the moff hadn't really had time for sleep. So his head fell back against the chair he was sitting in and, he was out.

What awakened him was the sound of troopers preparing to disembark, so he stood. And followed them off the shuttle into the hangar of The Adamant. It felt nice to be back on board, the star destroyer had been with him for sometime. So it felt like more of a home than any planet, or ship. That Orro had been on, when he made it to the bridge he was surprised to see that Zera already put them in hyperspace to get into the system. "M'lord." Zera said, nodding her head. She stood up from the command chair, and handed it back to Moff Orro who took his seat, when the ship exited in Tanarus the first thing that became apparent was, the buoy so they collected it and replayed the message.

When the message of the buoy spoke of Moff Aran not being the last he chuckled, but as it got to the end of the message. And spoke of a galactic republic. His first thought was of the New Republic, but Koren had mentioned they weren't in the system in any significant numbers yet, they also called themselves the New Republic, not the Galactic Republic. So he sent out 3 shuttles. Two to head to the planet, one to head to the outpost. The shuttles landed without much incident, but the local milita seemed cautious of the Imperials. "What happened here?" Orro asked, the milita trooper shook his head. "Got attacked Moff Aran was killed, so you're here for no reason."
"Can I pass?" He asked.
"No sir." The trooper shook his head.
"How bout some of these?" Orro asked, and he pulled his second best tool next to bombarding this planet. Credits switched hands, and the trooper smiled. "Of course sir, welcome to Tanarus." He stepped aside, and they went exploring the town. Bodies had been pulled from their places to be buried, but what was among them caught the Moff's eye. He pulled one of the corpses from the pile and took off it's helmet, he grabbed another body and did the same thing. He felt the rage build up inside him, the Galactic Republic was a new breed of clones from Kamino, the face looking back up at him was a new breed of clone from a different mandolorian.

The rage was building quickly now, but he kept himself calm. "Take every clone body aboard the ship, start running tests see if we can find this new Galactic Republic was just another thorn in his side, he rubbed his temples, and stood. Some of his troopers had returned with the clones made from the Jango template, two children, and the body of Moff Aran. "Get them all on the ship, I've seen enough." Orro said, they remounted the ship and returned to the star destroyer, the outpost theme spoke of the same thing. No imperial survivors, but the captain of the outpost was not among the dead, along with non combatant personnel, which also included a few of Orro's own agents. Gone, taken. The rage began to show on Orro's face, he debated about going after them. But months of carefully laid plans, would go to waste. They would have to come to him, and they would, or he would make them.

With the enemy's retreat, Sirka was finally able to stop and take a breath. She carefully reached back and attached her blaster to its proper spot on her backpack. The barrel was red hot after the firefight, so she was cautious not to touch it against anything. She already had enough burns on her as it was, after taking multiple hits over the course of two firefights. Some of her scales were blackened from their burns, but overall, she was still in good shape. Her scales would heal, and the flesh underneath was unharmed, with the exception of her hand. Some of the heat had burned through into her fingers, which was not a pain that was likely to go away quickly on its own. Regardless, it was not threatening to her at the moment, and she had other things to worry about.

Sirka stepped over to the other side of the crate and looked down on the Devaronian. She did not check his pulse or anything, but he looked dead enough to her. Curiously, she reached down and picked up the blaster pistol he had been using. It was a small hold out blaster, not even larger than her palms, but it looked valuable enough. With a shrug, she slipped the weapon into a pouch on one of her belts. "Okay, I helped you clear out your hanger. Now, Mandalorian, just find whatever package you're looking for and get your ship over here, then we leave." She turned her head towards Elias, staring him down intensely. "And she had better be safe and sound on that ship, or it's your head."

Moving back around the crates, Sirka decided to take another look at the E-Web while the others were dealing with the package. She doubted it was in any serviceable condition after being hit with a rocket, but that kind of firepower was worth enough to at least warrant a look.

Above Ques
1030 hrs, 16:6, 4 ABY

---

Elias would find himself privately called by Ken as he was in transit, but this time, the tone was harder but still amicable. Something had happened, which was clarified as the young man said:

“Hey, uh, Mr. Folen? Sorry about this, but my group of child soldier freed slaves has been ‘activated’. We have to attack a slaving ship that has captured a few thousand or so Vodrans and that ship is going to be outside Paradise. To complicate the situation, we have to free the slaves through any means possible even though it will get Mr. Graeff’s ire, meaning that we cannot just attack the slavers after they made their deal. Normally, I would just attack anyway...but I don’t want my team-mates enslaved again or worse.”

Ken managed to sound sheepish as he continued, “Sorry to ask for this even though you owe me nothing, but...I need help. Lots of it.”

Elias sat within the cabin of the Ark, preparing to give his men their briefing, before his RTO came up to him, commlink in hand, mentioning someone calling. Elias took the receiver, listening in and fashioning a reply.

“Elias Folen, Viper Security Solutions here… Right. Kid, I don’t know how to say this, but I’m not exactly able at the moment. My employer is splitting my team in two and sending me to deal with another contract. I’ll see what I can do. My second squad is still on-planet holding the fort. I may be able to get them to assist.” Elias stopped speaking, rubbing his face as he thought.

Ken’s happiness was evident. “Thanks! I knew I can depend on you, Mr. Folen. I and my team will be departing off-world once the arms deal is done. I may know a few others, including another person named Elias (@Zarkun) who is infamous for freeing slaves. If we time this right, we might be able to gather a coalition which would satisfy my superiors’ request for slaver blood,” It was then that Ken realized he mistrusted his remote superiors more than Elias, “and yet free the slaves while respecting Paradise’s neutrality.”

Then, a pause. “Also, a few more moments. My old trainer in weapons has just come here, also from off-world. She’s a good person, but not prone to accepting orders even though I am technically commanding the mission - she’s older than me and also suffered worse than me in slavery. She also craves slavers’ blood. How do I manage her?”

Yes, part of him hurt at having to refer to Lez in that way. But that was how he saw things; he may not be actually right.

“Make your authority known and your position clear. Be stubborn, but not an ass. Be confident, but not egotistical. Respect her and let it be known you expect respect back. That’s about all the advice I have for ya’.” Elias responded, cutting off and still surfing his datapad as he spoke.
Ken’s smile stayed on his face; he now knew what to do.

((OOC: I am assuming that Lez didn’t come with Ken and Puevi to the communications room after all.))

Like Sirka expected, the E-Web was not in terribly great shape. The rocket had hit near the point where the tripod connected to the weapon itself. Fortunately, the rocket had not detonated at that very instant. It carried enough force with it to essentially break the tripod away from the weapon, but it definitely looked like it had detonated a fraction of a second later. The explosion had been somewhat directional, but it certainly had not been kind to the weapon.

"Power coupling's shredded, barrel's bent to hell, shrapnel everywhere..." Sirka muttered to herself as she looked over the former blaster emplacement. Even so, it was not necessarily a lost cause; it would just need some replacement parts, and a lot of patience.

Eventually, Elias was able to get his ship over to the docking bay to load up the package they were after. Sirka had not asked what kind of cargo they would be taking back that was important enough to fight over, but she did not particularly care. Koren wanted it, and the fact that Sirka had helped acquire it would probably make her look better to him. Thoughts were already going through her mind about how she might report to Koren, and how she might make herself look as good as possible without outright lying. She had singlehandedly disrupted an ambush that would have otherwise caught the two Mandalorians. She had no way of knowing if they would have been able to fight their way out of it, but there was no question that she had thrown a spanner into their plan. The pirates would have been a lot more organized had they not been surprised.

As soon as the cargo was loaded, Sirka stepped up the loading ramp carrying both the E-Web and its power generator with her under her arms, then dropped them off in the cargo hold. She did not actually bother asking Elias before boarding, but if her sister was on that ship, then there was no way she would be accepting no for an answer. They had taken off from Circumtore as soon as they possibly could. There was no question that someone had noticed the firefight in the docking bay, and they wanted to get away from the ring world before anyone could intercept them.

It took only a moment for Sirka to drop off the damaged E-Web in the hold, so she made her way up to the front of the ship and stepped into the cockpit behind Elias and Delni just as they were starting to leave the atmosphere. Based on their interactions so far, Elias might have expected some more anger and shouting from Sirka, but her first reaction was nothing of the sort. There was no mistaking her lumbering footsteps, so Delni had already stood from her chair and turned to face her sister by the time Sirka stepped into the room. Without hesitation, Sirka threw her arms around Delni and only narrowly managed to avoid squeezing her tightly enough to hurt her, even lifting her clean off the ground at one point. "Delni, I...I'm so glad to see you in one piece. Everything's good, right? You're unharmed, nothing to worry about?" Sirka questioned, still in the midst of their hug.

The reunion was in stark contrast to every other moment that Elias had spent in Sirka's presence. She had been suspicious of Elias, and therefore constantly guarded. Even when she was drinking with him at the bar, Elias would have felt her eyes on him most of the time, and she certainly did not become emotional. Elias might have thought her to be a cold, unfeeling reptile, but that person was nowhere to be seen at this point. The ruthless, intimidating air she tended to project while on the job was gone; her voice was softer and filled with relief. She even managed not to look quite as large, since her posture was far more relaxed. If he looked closely enough, Elias might see that Sirka's hands were trembling ever so slightly. Even for a Human, it would not be too difficult to read her emotions clearly on display.

Skidder and Kast

Skidder sat back at the same quiet, out of the way and close to the exits seat at the bar that he’d sat at before Koren called him up to brief him on his latest job. He was trying his best to seem cool and relaxed, though he kept looking around and fidgeting in his seat every once in a while. He’d already sent out one of the many droids to ask for a meeting with one Zaheed Kast, the first mercenary whose name had caught Skidder’s eye as not being too big-time for his needs while hopefully not being a fresh face. Skidder’s cup was empty, but he didn’t seem to realize it as he tried to look calm and prepared, bringing the empty thing to his lips to taste the air and wait for his potential hired muscle.

Kast entered the Tipsy Rancor and glanced around, his face covered in a polarized faceplate. Perhaps it was greedy for him to be taking so many jobs back to back, but a series of quick but profitable jobs back to back meant that he could afford himself more time to relax before needing to find more work. The Jedi job in particular went more smoothly than Kast anticipated. 120,000 credits for little more than a short taxi job. Sure it might’ve been more exciting to fight the Jedi, but that didn’t necessarily result in his victory, and having him come in peacefully was definitely more cost effective- no resources spent, save for the sonic grenade trap and hunting down a drug smuggler no one would miss.

He found his contact with relative difficulty- no noticeable traits setting his contact apart from the other colorful sorts at the bar- a brown longcoat wasn’t an uncommon sight in Hutt Space. Approaching the contact, Kast took a seat next to him.

“Skidder?”

“Ah! Zaheed Kast. Excellent.” Skidder went to hand Kast a glass that was sitting on the table before he realized that it too was empty, so in a move pushed it next to the empty one to make it look as if moving the two empty glasses together was his plan all along.

Flawless.

“I hear you’ve worked for Mr.Graeff before? If so that is absolutely excellent. I need you for a protection job-” Skidder pushed over a datapad with the details listed. “-No questions asked about the cargo being exchanged, no looking at the merchandise… All the usual affair. The credits are good because they aren’t mine. So if you have no questions, we should really get going.”

Kast sat silently throughout most of Skidder’s prattle. The man was eccentric, and a little bit on the annoying side, but he worked for the Golden Exchange, and he was offering good money for what was a simple enough protection detail. Chances were that something was going to go wrong anyway, but when you always expected trouble, you’re rarely surprised by it.

Still, he’d be good for a break after this mission. He nodded, his polarized faceplate hiding any expression. “What’s the pay?”
Skidder fumbled with the datapad, as he tried to look up the amount that he was supposed to be offering for the job. “One Hundred Thousand Creds.” He wasn’t entirely sure if that was as much as he should be offering, this was one of the first deals he was funding entirely for himself. Well, he wasn’t funding it entirely himself he was given money by Koren to spend on a deal for them.

“You ready to go?”

“Fine.”

Scipio Industries and Finance

"Clone Troopers?!" Leonard couldn't help but shout in childish glee as he sat on his throne at the Venator's bridge. "Someone had the idea before I and Pau Je did?!" He then turned towards the Kaminoan by his right side, his expression a mix of fascinated, like a young boy in a candy store, and jealous, like someone who has had 'his' idea stolen even though it wasn't even patented. Pau Je turned towards him and said:

"There were rumors of a cell of cloners who left Kamino with a couple of thousand embryos and never came back. I was too young and inexperienced back then to be invited, but I heard tales that they knew the Empire was going to destroy our way of life and left to preserve it." Her tone was that of reverence with a tinge of envy.

Rule Findos, at Leonard's left side, then spoke: "We cannot trust smugglers and pirates, sir! Especially not ones who supposedly stood by as the Imperial Presence in the Tanarus System was supposedly destroyed by this 'Republic Remnant'. We only have their hearsay, after all."

After Rule paused, Leonard turned to an angry Raj Vizla, whose tense body language was not fully concealed by his Mandalorian Armor, and said, "Calm yourself. We will gain the resources and expertise to make new clones, one way or another, and you will have the opportunity to prove yourself worthy of being the template for this new army." Returning to Pau and Rule, Leonard would continue, "Send a transmission to the smugglers and pirates recently escaped from Tanarus. Tell them that we believe their words."

A pause. "In fact, send this message to all smuggers in Dandoran; that the CEO of Scipio Industries and Finance, Leonard L. Scipio, is posting a 100,000-credit reward for any information or evidence that this 'Republic-in-Exile exists, as well as their status. Tell them too that this reward will be collected in Paradise; we're going there."

Pau Je blinked. "But what about Dandoran? We are not going to build a base there?"

Leonard shook his head. "No, but give a few thousand credits to the local Church of the Force anyway so that they'd pray for my soul anyway; my soul needs it."

And with that, Scipio Industries and Finance, having made sure that their paint job was brown instead of red and that their transponders said 'Scipio Industries and Finance', would head for Paradise, ready to chase down leads to this very interesting faction...

Koren rarely chose where Paradise was stationed by random choice. He always chose it because it suited him, worked to his advantage. He had made a habit long ago of predicting and then playing every concievable angle. He sat in the dark now, him Ballick and a dozen Commando droids rocking around the small boarding craft. They had been dropped off less than a minute ago by a small transport Koren owned, which had subsequently jumped into hyperspace. Just incase the plan went awry and there were any witnesses, he couldn't have the attack leading back to him. After all his plans weren't anywhere near completion yet. The ship rocked as the spokes breached the hull of the target, the ships shield latching onto it's target creating an airtight seal as it forced the hull open. As the door opened, Koren dropped to the floor with a flourish. His coat billowing around him, pistols raised.

The landing was harder on his knees than it used to be. The hallways were illuminated red, the main lighting had been knocked out by the impact leaving them with the emergency lighting. Blaster fire could already be heard as Commando droids from other boarding craft deployed and began moving through the ship attacking the security forces. It was an old ship, unassuming due to it's size and speed. Relatively weak in terms of shielding and weaponry however the security forces that he was encountering let Koren know, that this was the right ship. He raised his pistols and fired two shots as a Weequay and a Twi'lek rounded the corner, both sporting the crest of Timana. Koren smirked to himself, of course it would be Timanas own forces protecting this. He wondered if the mighty Hutt Queen even knew of it's existence, after all she had the resources to make it work and then... well she really would be a force to be reckoned with.

Timana? He probably didn't have the tactical genius to realize what he had. He had a weapon far more effective than anything else in the Hutt Sector, and he had it burried in the hold of this old junker? After all that was what it was, a Hutt Junker. A ship full of wreckage and items from all over the Galaxy that the Hutts felt was worth their keeping. Known simply as The Vault it had remained secure in Jabbas hands for centuries on Tattooine, safely out of Korens reach. He barely knew anything about it till Jabba died and the cartel felt it was safer to bring it here and abandon Tatooine. Now it was within his grasp, he prowled through the corridors. Security was lax, why would it need to be high? Nobody knew about the ship, or at least that's what the Hutts thought. He passed several vaults, ignoring them. He had no doubt they contained untold riches, things beyond his wildest dreams and as much as he may want to add those items to his own collection he was here for a very particular, and much larger item than anything that could possibly be in any of these vautls.

As they approached the centre of the ship Koren turned to Ballick. "Meet up with the detatchment heading to the engine room, I need the self destruct ready to activate the second we secure the package. We can't let the Hutts know who it was that robbed them of this, I'm not really for the idea of all out warfare with the Hutts." Ballick nodded, he was a man of few words in a combat situation after all. He looked at his chronometre, they had been on the ship for half an hour. He'd been away from Paradise for nearly an hour, he'd have to find some marks to account for that time. Pay them off, have footage falsified. Koren Graeff couldn't just disappear for over an hour without anyone noticing.

He finally approached the door he was looking for, nodding at the panel Aurrie appeared practically out of nowhere - having been travelling back at a safe distance - before inserting a spike into the terminal. Beeping quite contently as he went to open the door, as the door didn't move within a minute Koren shot the droid a look, which gave a far less happy and far more disgruntled beep followed by a higher pitched cheer. There was a loud clunk as the locks unlatched and the door raised into a wide hangar. Lights flickered on, echoing through the room. The cold made Korens hairs stand on air as he stood face to face with his prize.

It was beautiful...

It was also impossible to recover. "Aurrie, I need you to get a full technical reading of the device. I need to know how to make one, get all the datafiles from the ships computer. You have-" he checked his chronometre. Kriff. "-Ten minutes, we need to be out of here ten minutes ago."

Elias remained silent while the two sisters spoke, and barely noticed the change in body language of the giant lizard woman. To be frank, he was ready to be done with the whole affair ever since he found Delni in his room after nearly reaching Circumtore. Couple in the fact that her sister had been there as well...Next time, Koren can be damn well straight with me. Hate the man's head games... He waited until the two had said their piece to each other before turning in the pilot's chair, the cargo having been dropped off at Near Pando. After a moment, he sighed, knowing that the moment he spoke, the real Sirka would likely disappear. "Look, I just want to get on with my day and forget that I was an idiot and left Paradise in a hurry. So, we good or do we actually have to come to blows over this?"

---

Aboard the Resurgence, a single man sat in his office, reading over the reports from the after math of the blitz against Moff Aran Mortifus. And Supreme Commander Jason Je'and couldn't find himself more pleased with the results of the first combat action of his army than he had anticipated being. Casualty reports put the number of lost soldiers, clone and non-clone alike, well under the initial estimates and all weapons that the fallen were carrying were confirmed to be either retrieved or destroyed. All in all, the plan had gone as planned for once. But now they know we exist and they'll be watching for further attacks. We'll have to better prepare in the future.

A few minutes after he'd finished and was simply sitting and watching the hyperspace light go by, his door opened, admitting the first Clone Commander Jason had met, Hammer. He was one of the two thousand, five hundred Jango clones that had been saved from the manipulations of the traitor Sheev Palpatine and his cohort Dooku and he was incredibly reliable. "I take it we're nearing the drop off point then?" The commander nodded, his helmet still on.

"Aye sir, nearing the drop point for your shuttle. Though I will once more state my objections to not taking any guards, not even some of the enlisted men and women. If we're trying to maintain secrecy, why go meet with Koren Graeff at all?" Jason smiled as he stood, taking the time to stride over to Hammer and rest a hand on his shoulder.

"Because we're still new to this area of the galaxy, even if we've been keeping an eye on things. Some information is better than nothing. Besides, he's an ex-separatist and I want to say hi." Hammer nodded before following the Supreme Commander out of his office and then heading down to the barracks. After dropping off Jason, they would be rendezvousing with the Redemption to recoup losses and he wanted that to go as smoothly as possible.

---

A few minutes later and Jason was alone on a single Z-95 Headhunter on it's way to the converted Providence-class ship known as Paradise. It was a short trip, but the multiple short range hyperspace jumps made sure that his original trajectory couldn't be backtracked and, upon arriving in the system Paradise was in, wiped his jump history as well, should anyone get any wise ideas. He knew that the Clone Wars were over, but he also knew that old habits died hard.

Landing in a semi-public docking bay, the Supreme Commander disembarked from his fighter and approached the elevator. He wore fairly nondescript brown pants, with a blue shirt and brown boots. On his waist was his R-30017 in it's holster, but he carried no other weapons on him. As expected, he was stopped at the lift entrance and asked to turn over his blaster. "No need for that, I merely wish a word with your boss, Koren Graeff. And I wish to have it personally."

Elias' prediction of Sirka's reaction was fairly accurate, as her immediate instinct was to snarl at him. It looked like she was about to start yelling yet again when Delni reached up and placed a gentle hand on Sirka's shoulder, lightly shaking her head. She spoke softly, with an equally soft expression. "Sis, it was just as much my fault as anyone's, and he did the right thing once we got over the surprise. He could have done anything to me, but he agreed to let me stay, gave me some clothes, and even offered to compensate me for the trouble. He's not a bad guy, honestly."

After a moment, Sirka's intimidating stance deflated. It seemed that Delni, at least, had the ability to calm the beast, as it were. She stared at Elias through the extended pause before finally closing her eyes and giving a light nod. "Okay, you know I trust you. Just...give me a minute with him, alright? I'd still like to talk about some things. I promise I won't eat him or anything."

Delni smiled. "Fine, fine. And speaking of eating, I think I could use some lunch. I haven't even ate yet today, with everything that's been going on. I'll get something for you too. Hope you don't mind me taking all your meat, Elias. My big sis here can eat a lot of it."

With Delni walking out of the cockpit, Sirka took another step closer to Elias. Again, there was a brief pause between them before Sirka finally spoke up. "Look, Mandalorian...Elias. While I might have every right to smash your face in for kidnapping my sister, I'm not going to. Delni vouches for you, and as stupid as she can act sometimes, she's not a bad judge of character. She's a really good one, actually; got a talent for it that I really don't even understand. So, maybe I can give you a chance. See for myself why she trusts you."

Sirka extended her hand towards Elias, offering to shake his. "Why don't we sit down, and you tell me your side of the story?"

Surprisingly, Elias didn't find himself smashing the barrel of his blaster into Sirka's chin as she rammed him against the console, thanks largely in part to Delni. More words were exchanged and then Delni took her leave, apologizing for the meat. "Used to have a Wookie as a first mate. Trust me, I've got plenty of meat." She left and Elias, for the sake of some privacy, though he was sure Sol'id was likely cleaning his blaster in the crew quarters, closed the door to the cockpit and locked it so he could count on no interruptions.

Once Sirka was done, Elias nodded before speaking, pulling out a flask of brandy and taking a sip. "Your sister asked me, likely sometime after you'd left, what was in the alcohol I'd given you guys. I told her straight that it was Mandalorian Ale. To keep this short and to the point, she suggested we meet up at my ship, though what she thought was going to happen and what I was going to allow were two different things. I have one of Koren's droids keep me trapped in my room til I'm sober, if that's any indication of how much trouble I've gotten in, so I figured it would be better if she got sober with me around than in the room of someone who would have actually taken advantage of her and kicking herself for it." He took another sip from the flask before putting the lid on and setting it aside.

"On my way to my ship, one of Koren's droids caught me and told me about the job on Circumtore, provided me with the means to hire protection, and sent me on my way with a warning that it should tell me how happy he was with me at the time. Still not sure what he meant by that. Anyways, I panicked and rushed to get help and then rushed to get us on our way to the final destination. When I went to get my grenades, I found Delni on my bed and it came rushing back to me. The rest you know."

While Elias was giving his explanation, Sirka sat herself down in the co-pilot's chair, at least as well as she could. She had more weight to her than even a Wookiee, but she could make it work. Dealing with undersized furniture was a rather common occurrence for her, after all. Still, she ended up halfway leaning off of it by the time she settled in.

"Hmm, so still stupid, but...I suppose not unforgivable." Sirka remarked. She flicked out her nose tongues at Elias to see if she could get any hints on if he was perhaps lying to her. For the moment, though, she was operating on a tentative assumption that he was being truthful. "That was pretty much the story she told me. Delni doesn't usually get that drunk, don't think she meant to. That's probably why she ended up in your ship, though knowing her, I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to sleep with you just to spite me. Growing up, she always thought I was too controlling, too protective of her. Delni's rebellious phase ended up with her rebelling against me just as much as our parents. She was too naive, too trusting, and it didn't always end as well as it did this time. There were some times that I did have to bash some skulls on people who deserved it. Not a lot of honor to go around on Nar Shaddaa, after all."

Sirka leaned back onto her chair and sighed. "She's not that innocent little girl anymore, though. If you as interested in her as you were acting back in the bar, I guess it's not my right to get in the way. I know I should trust her; she does more for me than even she knows. Don't tell her I said that, though, or I'll break your nose. Last thing I need is her getting a big head."

Sol'id Fist

The Devaronian Job was a fairly good haul, though he wasn't entirely pleased if Sirka thought she would get apart of his cut. Not that he would be violent over it, probably. But Sol'id was not fond on negotiating. He could still admit she did her part, however. He grunted at the thought as he lay down the various blasters and grenades he had grabbed from the fallen men as they had departed. Most of them were only fit for scrap and selling. He'd take a few parts from them, however. Customize his rifle some more if it needed it.

After today, he wondered if he could make the magazine a bit larger. Or simply make a secondary, smaller submachine blaster to aid in mowing down potential enemies if the need arose. Eventually, he tore a few of the components out of some of the more elite blaster rifles he'd found. The tri-vision scope was something he recognized, and he'd never really had cause to buy with its price, but now that he'd found one, he took advantage and kept it in his utility belt to be inserted onto his blaster later.

He heard diminutive footsteps behind him, and turned around just in time to see the lithe Delni walking past. He saw she was startled by him, but since he was only fixing equipment, she offered him some food. He hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Thank you," he said simply, and turned back to his work.

He fully expected to be on his way once they reached the station again, but something told him that wasn't going to be the case. Or someone would protest his resolve to leave. He was already uninterested in the personal politics of the other three, but he did somnewhat wish to help Elias in learning to be a true Mandalorian. He supposed everyone had to explore the galaxy first, however. Sol'id was lucky enough to be born and bred in trials by fire. Delni was also amiable, at least.

Now that they were finally back in hyperspace, on their way back to Paradise, Delni felt that she could finally relax. The whole thing had been a stressful affair, but at least it had worked out in the end. She was looking forward to getting back to her own clothes in her own hotel room, but she did not feel like she was in a particular hurry. She strolled casually through the ship's kitchen, humming to herself while she looked for whatever food caught her eye, as she was wont to do whenever she was alone. As a Togruta, she had another sense in the form of echolocation through her montrals, allowing her to perceive her surroundings outside her own vision in much greater detail than most other species. Having some ambient sound could sharpen that sense, making her feel more aware.

Given that she had promised to feed most of the people on board, Delni ended up leaving the kitchen with a large tray of food in her hands. For herself, she had grabbed a few roasted shatual ribs, and several, much larger cuts of meat for Sirka. Sol'id could take what he wanted from that, along with a fruit Delni did not recognize that she assumed was edible. Both herself and her sister were from carnivorous species, so she was not terribly familiar with most fruits and vegetables. She did pour herself a glass of wine as well, though she was sure to double check its exact contents first, not wanting to repeat her past mistakes.

Delni returned to the room Sol'id was using and stopped her humming just before stepping inside. She found a clear spot to set down the tray, packed to the brim with shatual meat. "Here you are, take whatever you like. Just make sure to leave enough for my sister." She said, pausing as she looked around at the blasters and other weapons that Sol'id had gathered round him. She had not payed much specific attention to his equipment before the job, granted, but she had the feeling he did not have this many with him beforehand. "So, uh...what exactly happened out there? I was worried that you had run into trouble when I suddenly lost comms with you, which is why I convinced my sister to try and help you."

Sol'id Fist

Sol'id was tying up his guns by the time Delni made her way back through his temporary quarters. This wasn't a bad ship, he had to admit. A bit roomy compared to his own. The Hammer was made for combat and pursuit purposes, with only a small living quarters if he ever needed the opportunity. He usually did not. He kind of wished he'd taken his own transport to the planet, but he also saw the logic in being in the same ship as the others.

Sol'id turned around when the Togruta walked in and placed the tray down. He saw she was a bit uneasy around him. He supposed he could not blame her, exactly. He was different than the small woman in almost every way one could think, though he supposed she wasn't as shy as she made out to be which he could appreciate. Perhaps she could potentially be an assassin, playing a long con.

The large Mando nodded his thanks, and approached the tray, his back to her as he lifted his helmet enough to take a few large bites of Sirka's extra meats, though he made sure to grab some of the fruit too. He needed more protien than anything, but vitamins were essential to combat prowess as well for a human.

"So, uh...what exactly happened out there? I was worried that you had run into trouble when I suddenly lost comms with you, which is why I convinced my sister to try and help you."

He swallowed the last bit of food, and breathed in through his nose as he set his helmet back ontop of his head, and he turned around to regard her. A small wisp of air escaped from his neck where the helmet was now integrating with the rest of his armor. He did not know if he should thank or rebuke Delni for bringing in another member of the team, so instead he did neither. "It was an ambush. A poor one, as the ambusher in question ended up dead along with the bounty heads. But they attempted to trap and surround us." He grabbed his gun, though instead of making a threatening move, he simply sat down and began to clean it with a cloth.

"Your sister fought well," he said. "The Devaronian captain had a lot of men around him, but we neutralized the threats and I took him out while Elias and Sirka supported and grabbed the package. I've been on worse teams, at least." He said, and looked up at her. "Do you fight?"

Seeing as she was in no hurry, Delni decided to take a seat across from Sol'id while he cleaned his blaster so that she could have some lunch for herself. The ribs might not have been the best she ever had, but she was far from picky after being hungry for most of the day. When Sol'id posed his question, Delni shook her head. "Me? Oh, no. That's, uh, Sirka's job. She did try to teach me how to shoot a while back, and she said I was good at it for a beginner, but I've never really been in a fight. Nothing serious, anyway. I used to work with computers, technology, and such back when I was younger, but now my job is to manage the business part of our business. I'm the one that usually finds work for my sister, and manages our finances. It's something that has let me meet a lot of people, make a lot of connections. Since we helped you without necessarily being obligated to, I'm hoping I'll be able to make another connection in the form of Koren. He is the kind of employer that can bring a mercenary quite a lot of credits."

Delni gave a brief chuckle. "Wouldn't that be such a strangely lucky outcome of me drunkenly wandering into this ship? It wouldn't be the first time that we've gotten a lucky break. I feel like there's someone out there looking out for me, sometimes. For both of us, really. My sister was the adopted one of our family. Back when she was still an infant, just before the end of the Clone Wars, she was rescued from a life of slavery by a Jedi. The Order helped her find a family to take care of her."

Sol'id Fist

Sol'id grunted at her explanation. The skill set she had was not something he could respect as a Mandalorian, but as a bounty hunter, he knew skills like that could be valuable at the right moments. He had taken her for a ditz, but he supposed she hadn't shown any lack of intelligence thus far. Just a huge supply of confusion, which was understandable for her at the time. He then wondered if it wasn't the worst thing in the galaxy to stick around. His last hacker and technician had been killed. It had been a shame. Zortan was a fine partner. Did his job and didn't talk about useless shit.

"I thought you were the adopted one." He said to her, placing the butt of his large blaster onto the ground as he cleaned the barrel. Sirka seemed so sure of herself, from what he'd seen. At least compared to Delni. Usually the adopted one was the unsure one. Then again, he supposed many Mandalorian brothers and sisters were adopted into the philosophy and fought just as hard as any other warrior in the band.

"Echani," Sol'id declared suddenly. He placed his gun down, and stood up. Perhaps he looked ominous as he approached Delni, but he stopped about 2 meters from her position. He lifted one arm, holding it forwards but twisting it as far as it could go, letting his hand relax. He then used his other hand, holding it open and straight like a board, running it across his outstretched arm. Then his arms spun, and to Delni she would almost see the invisible arm now being grappled, and the opening in the opponent that Sol'id's free fist now punching into. Most likely a throat.

"I suggest learning it. Even as a technician, in your...our line of work. We all must be ready for anything." He held his hand to her to help her out of her chair once she had eaten.

Elias snorted at the casual threat made with the request. "Trust me, though you already know it, she don't need me to say anything for her to get a big head." Standing, Elias heads to the navigation read out and pulls up a couple of different maps, one of Hutt Space, and one of the Outer Rim. "Ya know, after this job...well, you and Delni ever consider trying to find work outside of Hutt space?" Elias had, even done jobs for a few people in the Outer Rim, people far less likely to put a bounty on your head just because you didn't hang the poor bastard who they sent you after by his entrails as an example. There was a reason Elias's bounty hunter work was little and what bounties he did take were far between.

"They're some pretty reasonable folk out in the Outer Rim, though I suppose the pay isn't what it is here in Hutt space." And that was likely, Elias mused as he looked over various planets, why he kept coming back to Hutt Space despite the bounties and rampant backstabbing, among other issues. He was never short on credits, but the thrill in the Outer Rim was considerably less than in Hutt Space, as was the pay, and he relied on the pay to help his family back on Coruscant move up in life, since they wouldn't do it themselves.

Delni looked somewhat confused watching Sol'id. He looked like he was pantomiming hand-to-hand fighting, which was likely the case. She was pretty sure that she was familiar with the Echani: a warrior culture, if she remembered correctly. She was guessing that Sol'id fought with that style, or maybe just felt that it was worthwhile to learn. In any case, Delni sort of doubted that it would be as helpful to her as Sol'id was expecting. Regardless, she did take his hand and stand up to her feet. She still had a mostly full tray of meat to take to her sister, but she also was still in no hurry. It would stay warm for a while yet, so she could continue to stick around and talk.

"I...don't know about that. Training or no, I'd probably be a lot better off just trying to use a blaster if I'm ever in danger. I mean..." Delni began, lifting up and flexing her arm. The vest Elias had given her, in addition to being revealing in other places, was sleeveless, so Sol'id could easily see her muscles, or lack thereof. She had no real strength training at all, on top of a naturally small frame. The amount of effort it would take to make her a threat in a fist fight would be considerable. "...I'm not really built for that sort of thing. Learning to, like, quick-draw a blaster or something might be more, uh, time efficient. Ideally, though, I'd like to just stay away from the fighting. My sister is much, much better at that. Best to play to one's strengths, right?"

---

Sirka looked at the maps that Elias was scrolling through with a frown, not that Elias would likely be able to discern the meaning of her more subtle reptilian expressions. "I...well, I know Hutt Space isn't exactly a bastion of safety and morality, but I do need the credits. Like you said, the Outer Rim doesn't pay as well unless you have much more of a reputation than I do. I need the credits; I have...obligations." She said, vaguely. The fact that she regularly sent a significant chunk of her pay to her parents to help support them was personal information, and not something she was quick to share with someone that she still did not know particularly well. She did not like it to be known that she had someone else she cared deeply about who she was not around constantly to protect.

"Personally, I'm hoping to get more work from Koren. I did do two jobs for him today, after all." Sirka remarked. "Also helps that I haven't heard many bad things about him, so he might be an employer I don't have too much issue working with. Dangerous, sure, but at least with him I won't risk accidentally helping out some kind of slaver or other scum."

Elias grunted at what Sirka says about Koren, but is silent for several moments after she stops speaking. Geonosis, Naboo, Chandrillia, though the New Republic didn't much care for smugglers as it rebuilt, and many other worlds came and left as he scrolled before he sighed and closed the list. "I suppose it's a case of the devil you know. Just...don't be so sure about Koren Graeff. I don't know much about the man than you do, but everyone has their own motives, and it's those who don't share you should watch out for."

He unlocked the door to the cockpit and opened it, glancing down it's short hallway. "Sure is taking awhile to get the food. Hope she didn't fall into one of the old smuggling compartments. I have a few people sized ones for hiding when being boarded or searched for."