[IC] Star Wars: Rebel Scum | Recruiting because of bailouts.

[Rithy]

Having the shower area for herself while most of the rebels were busy assisting with the shuttle in the hangar was quite a relief. Stripping out of her tight jumpsuit, she'd swiftly move over to the nearest four shower heads, focusing them all on herself and turning them on. Having the warm water splash down on her from every direction was a wonderful sensation, especially when she did not have to share any of them with the rest of the crew.

However, her sole occupation of the shower area would soon be intruded upon by a familiar twi'lek that just entered the shower area.

Although Saleen pretended she did not notice her at first, she kept a constant eye on Ja'vi as the mute Twi'lek went over to find her own shower head.

"Great, you just ruined my perfect moment!"

"Hey, twi'lek!" Saleen would eventually shout across the shower room towards Ja'vi, while holding up a bottle.
"Need some shampoo? I could barrow you mine if you wanted... "

" ... "

" ... ohh wait, I completely forgot, you don't even have hair in the first place. I don't know if I have a cure for tentacles." Saleen snickered from across the showers, though the twi'lek didn't seem to respond to her, let alone even notice her presence. It actually looked like Ja'vi was literally meditating in the showers, something that made Saleen raise a brow at the odd scene.

"Weirdo.. "

This did not make the human any less suspicious however. She had read enough imperial galactic news reports, and she knew that it was always the quiet guy who was responsible for any sudden massacres aboard vessels!

As Ja'vi left the showers, Saleen also headed towards her own locker. Although she normally preferred to shower for up to half an hour at a time, right now, she was more curious about what the mute twi'lek was up to. Wrapping a towel around her torso and slinging her jumpsuit over her shoulder, she'd secretly sneak out of the showers after Ja'vi. Walking in a seemingly nonchalantly manner a couple of meters behind her as she stalked the twi'lek to her room, Saleen would approach the door to her private quarters.

But as she was about to reach up to the panel besides the door, she suddenly paused.

"Wait, what will I say if it turns out she isn't up to something?"

Saleen pondered on the thought for a moment, eventually deciding that her excuse for entering the twi'lek's room would be that she was looking for the commander. It was a good enough explanation, at least in her mind!

Without any further delay, she'd press the button to on the panel, causing the doors to Ja'vi's room to open.

"Hey! Mutee! Do you know where I can find... " Saleen proclaimed her question out loudly as she marched into Ja'vi's room, before suddenly noticing the hovering objects just before they immediately dropped to the ground.
" ... wait, what was that?"

[Feisty-Pants]

Ja'vi - Not-Quite-Pleasantries

Do not be unsettled, maintain your focus.

Slowly, the carefully precise movements of the variable parts and pieces that hovered around the Twi'lek began to snap back into place. Cautious, exact movements that required the entirety of her attention as it became constructed in the air in front of her. Once the last item had clicked into its proper position, the completed Training Saber twirled in the air in front of her as her hand brushed past it, causing it to turn slower as she inspected it.

Other than the blasted lack of a crystal...she could likely get a fully functional true Lightsaber from the majority of the parts that remained, in combination with a few other pieces that she needed. Even as a child she had done her best to keep it in pristine condition.

A few things were needed surely, but the most critical part of a Saber's core was what she truly lacked. She needed to find a way to get a new proper crystal soon, desperately in fact.

Yet so focused as she on her task that she didn't notice that there was someone at her door before it was far too late. Just as Saleen intruded upon her private quarters, the fully constructed Training Saber fell back to the earth and Ja'vi deftly snatched it out of midair. Tucking it inside the loose-fitting clothes she wore when not armored up like normal, she looked up to see who her intruder was from where she knelt.

Not good...of all the people! Why this one!? Must it always be the loud ones?!

Swiftly, Ja'vi's hand shot out and snatched the heavy gunner's fingertips to drag her into the room quickly and force the door to snap shut. There, she fluidly rose to a stand, but there were no other movements of aggression made by the Force Sensitive. Instead the Twi'lek stood rather gravely still, staring intensely at the woman. What was she supposed to do? Lashing out and striking would create a further distraction that she needn't have.

Going unnoticed would have been preferable, but now this accursed mercenary had gone and made that all but impossible! To make matters worse, this woman answered only to the principles of money and greed more likely than not! At least the rebels might have been more trustworthy with their idealism, but no! She had to find her instead!

Her hands clenched into fists, and her jaw became set.

There was only the truth, that was all she could do here. How this woman reacted would dictate how she further handled the situation for now.

"I-I...I am a former Youngling Jedi." Ja'vi admitted quietly in the isolation of their room. Her voice, melancholic but beautiful all the same, continued to talk in a hushed tone. "I have no Master who teaches me, the Knight who was supposed to be such was killed during the Purge. So I am learning as best I can on my own in the ways of the Force. I could not do it under the watchful paranoia of the Empire, so I am doing what I can beneath the not-so-watchful eyes of the Rebellion."

Looking up to Saleen, the Twi'lek did her best to appeal to the woman. "Please, you cannot tell a soul! There are those who despise my kind, I cannot be found nor seen for what I truly am!"

@Rithy

[Rithy]

"A jedi?" Saleen said as she cocked her head slightly to the side, taking a moment to simply stare at the twi'lek.

Although Ja'vi had originally met her with a sudden and harsh glare that was most unusual for the normally stoic alien, she now looked to be literally pleading with her eyes. Her eyes had grown almost to resemble that of puppy eyes, and Saleen felt that she was dangerously close to almost feeling genuine sympathy for the twi'lek!

"Please, you cannot tell a soul!"

Saleen gazed back at Ja'vi, whilst moving a hand up to rub her jaw as she contemplated the matter.

"Well, at least I finally got her to talk!"

She was not unfamiliar with the concept of jedi. Indeed, she had seen them in countless movies and video games back on her time during Coruscant, and even seen some on the street. That was at least until the new government had stepped in, and orchestrated something not far off from a holocaust against their order. She had never actually met a jedi face to face. The idea that she was now talking to one was both cool, and at the same time, a little worrisome!

Jedi were known for their dangerous lightsabers capable of slicing through any material, as well as wicked mind powers with which they could wreathe unfathomable destruction.

"Maaaaaybe I shouldn't be standing so close to this one! I mean, if she should turn hostile... !"

"I am going to assume that the thing you're trying to hide from me was a lightsaber, wasn't it?" Saleen asked with a slight smirk on her face as she gently nodded towards the twi'lek's clothes where she had last seen the cylindrical device. Tossing the door behind her a quick glance to see if it was shut, Saleen would look back at the twi'lek with a small smile.

"Can I see it?"

[HeySeuss]

Captain (Navy) Probos Hud was the new G-3 for Vanguard, replacing his rather more complacent predecessor after the latter's relief, and the sectors it operated out of, which was roughly the region between Ziost and Jabiim, with a broad mandate to disrupt whatever he could with the limited forces available to his command. The most important element of that mandate was to do whatever it took to prevent Mon Calamari, the planet that provided the Alliance's best shipyards, from direct attack or at least to make the theoretical supply lines for such an attack look too daunting to undertake.

So he wasn't impressed when a Captain (Army) Ornestes of Alliance Intelligence was briefing him on a botched mission involving one of his ships having to cut and run real fast from a Victory-class star destroyer that lay in waiting -- his forces, to the mind of the Duros, were supposed to be the ones with the element of surprise.

"Captain, I will make this clear," Hud told him in the straightforward way the Duros tended to have, the confidence of being one of the first starfaring races, "My predecessor was slack and sat on his ass and was happy to detach forces to your operations. I am not. I need every swinging tentacle in my command to carry out -my- operations. Also, that Ganatoo station mission was a wash on all fronts -- it was only because one Lieutenant Byron sent out a separate team to tap the traffic control at the same time that they were running this funny Hutt deal, acting like a palace guard for a washed-up crime lord, that my forces managed to discover the threat and got out."

"Be that as it may," Ornestes started.

"Please sit, Captain," Hud ordered/requested, "And allow me to explain the facts of life." Ornestes, who was something like three grades beneath a Navy captain, did so. It was hard to read Duros expressions, at least for a human, because they were blue-faced, golden-eyed and had no noses. It took a person experienced with their expressions to really read them. All the same, they were not some provincial species -- the Duros were far-flung, with colonies all over the galaxy, and their homeworld in the core. They often acted like they invented the hyperdrive, and certainly loved to make use of it.

"All Intelligence requests for my forces will be routed through me. The plans will be submitted to me. They will be vetted by myself and my staff before the forces you require are given their orders. I agree that uploading virii into the Imperial traffic control computers is a useful mission and will put my chop on it when I see an appropriate plan. By 'appropriate' I mean any plan that does not involve that Hutt."

"But sir, Slooga..."

"Is washed up and has a price on his head big enough for his former contacts to turn on him. He's not really a powerful Hutt Lord anymore. I am reliably informed that his ship is in the alliance with or without him. For the sake of appearances, we'll keep Slooga because he might be useful in the future, but have no illusions, Captain, we are not here to facilitate his grandiose plans of a return to glory. We're here to fight the Empire."

"Yes sir," Ornestes said, somewhat stiffly, "I understand."

"Good, now I'd like to turn your attention," he hit a button and the room darkened and a holodisplay came up, "to this; Operation Bantha Poacher."

The Intruder, a squadron of Y-Wings, Buccaneer squadron, and, of course, 1st Platoon in the vanguard...

[Feisty-Pants]

Ja'vi - Show and Tell?

Behind her set jaw, there was a sense of worry that lingered in the corner of her mind. Was this woman going to report her or not? Instead of hated and suspicion that she thought would be there, the Twi'lek was met with something else entirely; something that she didn't expect.

There was curiosity.

Whether or not it was genuine was another matter, but the woman wanted to see something that she had kept hidden from so many. Yet with her inquiry came a slight, weary smile from Ja'vi. It wasn't as if she had a choice now in this moment, she had to take the chance with this woman. Otherwise, the consequences could even be more dire.

Reaching into her loose-fitting robes, she retrieved the long, slender device. Carefully, she set it into Saleen's outstretched hand for her to inspect it.

"It isn't a full-fledged saber." The former youngling softly stated, looking upward at the behemoth of a human woman. "It was only a training saber from my days as an initiate, nothing more. Even still, it's dysfunctional and broken. With a new gem I could make an actual Lightsaber...but that is proving to be a task beyond my ability."

Once Saleen had held it long enough to make the Twi'lek nervous, she lightly plucked it away from the grasp of the human and tucked it back away beneath her clothing.

"It...it doesn't matter. I'm simply here to help the rebellion as best as I can. That is all that matters. Shall we move on?" Motioning for the human to follow, she gracefully strode through the corridors of the Intruder to arrive at the ship's armory. There, she would scavenge through the last of the spare parts that had been retrieved.

More particularly, a newer battery for her blaster pistol. She had never been a fan of rifles or heavier weapons. Too heavy, too cumbersome, and too showy. She preferred subtlety for a reason, after all. Blades rather than blasters, even her pistol was more of a last support.

If only she could find a smaller, compact power source for her other work in progress...

[Rithy]

Balancing the lightsaber gingerly in her hand, Saleen studied its design with a sense of fascination.

"I had thought it'd be bigger." She commented as she inspected the device. Upon the revelation that it was just a cheap training saber and not an actual weapon, she felt a surge of disappointment. It would indeed have been cool to try wielding a proper lightsaber that was supposed to be able to even cut through support beams and ship frames alike!

"Shall we move on?"

Saleen was surprised when Ja'vi suddenly snatched her lightsaber back, the twi'lek's nerves apparently not managing to suffer it being in the human's care any longer. The twi'lek had already headed out into the corridor when Saleen stepped up behind her.

"Wait, let me just get dressed first!" Saleen exclaimed, as she was still only wearing a set of towels from the shower. Tossing them off, she jumped into her jumpsuit while following the twi'lek out of the room. Given how tight it was, getting into her suit was not a trivial task, especially when combined with moving at the same time. Managing to force it back up over her butt and enter into it with the rest of her torso, she'd jump out into the corridor after Ja'vi. Her hair was still wet and dripping, something that bothered her. A person of her social status and cultural affluence should not be seen in such a state!

"I have always wondered... " Saleen began as she trailed after Ja'vi and followed her into the armory.

" ... why don't you just,-"

Saleen suddenly went quiet, as a random rebel passed by them. The man seemed to throw them a confused stare as Saleen merely waved him away, making a clear sign for him to leave.

As the rebel left, she immediately turned her attention back to Ja'vi.

"What I mean is... why lightsabers? Wouldn't the force-thingy-whatever be even better with ranged weapons?!" She asked, sounding genuinely excited as she leaned over Ja'vi, drops of water dribbling down from her hair and onto the alien's back.
"I mean, MIND BULLETS!"