Real Folk Blues (Open)

Felicity had fixed the problem with her ship and was now safely inside, but she had not removed her space suit completely. Just the helmet and gloves sat on the copilots seat. She stared ahead at the abandoned space station feeling somehow... at home. That was odd.

The beeping of her droid pulled her from her daydreaming.

"Hm? Well, yeah? Of course I'm going to explore it. We're low on supplies and I might find something worthwhile."
The droid gave a low hum of disapproval.
"Well? What's the worse that can happen?"
A sharp chirp in answer.
"...Shuddup and just scan. See if there's a safe place to land."

Felicity leaned back in her seat, eyeing the massive hunk of steel. People had lived on that thing once, worked there. Felicity heard the droid hum and click as it connected to the data port. A few minutes of silence at it gained access to her ships scanners and then three sharp whistles.

"Yeah? That bad? Damn. I was hoping this'd be easy. Alright. Find Owain. Have him keep the ship in orbit for me. Close enough that I can get a comm signal through. I'm about to do something... kinda stupid."

She ignored the alarmed beeps from the little astromech as she pulled on her helmet again and gloves, sealing herself in again. This wasn't wise. She knew that, but sometimes adventure was worth the risk. She moved quickly from the cockpit, heading once more out of the ship. She hovered along the hull of the ship again, grasping handholds to keep her secure. No tether this time. No life line. And what she had planned was idiotic in the extreme.

Like Father, like daughter.

She tested the jetpack on her back carefully, slowly inching along the edge of her ship. She grasped onto a handrail again before she could speed up too much. Good. Now, if she did this right, she could make it.

QT beeped in her comm and the girl chuckled.
"What? Worried?" she was grinning like an idiot as she felt her moment approach. "Give Owain a kiss goodbye for me, alright?"

The droid gave a wild squeal of disapproval, just as the girl kicked off.

300 ft

She flew like a bird. Weightless. Careless. Free. She had the urge to touch the necklace she wore, stroke the bird-shaped pendant, but it was hidden safely under her space suit. She raced towards the space station, right on target. Not bad for just eye balling it.

200 ft

She used the rockets on her back to slow herself. Better not go in too fast. No air resistance, meant she'd keep going forever if she missed her target.

100 ft

She was close. She carefully began to line herself up, making sure her magnetic boots would find metal and latch.

50 ft

Her heart raced.

30 ft

Did she make a mistake?

20 ft

This was insane!

10 ft

Was it worth it?

"And she sticks the landing!" she called through her comms as boot connected with metal. She carefully moved to face the ship, further away than she'd initially thought. As if she thought they might be able to see her, she waved, grinning like an idiot. Her heart was pounding hard in her chest.

That was the craziest thing I've ever done!

QT seemed to almost sigh, at least, if a droid was able to. It beeped again, carefully instructing her on the direction to go. There was no sound in space, but if there was, she could swear her wild heartbeat would be deafening.



Nearly twenty minutes later, she was finally in the station. After spending so much time out there, it felt weird experiencing gravity again. Gravity. Huh. That was weird. How did it have gravity? Parts of the station must still be operational then. Maybe life support was still online? It was possible, but she kept her suit on, just in case. She had enough oxygen for three and a half hours left. That was enough time, until she could figure out for sure. Enough time to do a little light treasure hunting as well.

She switched on a flash light on her suit, checked the blaster attached to her belt, and kept moving.

The blonde did not hide her volume. Why should she? She was alone, for all she knew. She'd grabbed a dusty old sack and began to fill it with useful scraps that she found. Ancient out of print texts and holos were really what she was interested in, but occasionally she found something special.

Like what she was currently looking at now. She'd open a computer panel and was currently sorting through memory chips. She could use these parts to improve the Infernos on board computer. But what was really great, was when she found a new, totally unused power core. A jackpot! Carefully, she tucked that under her arm and stood back up, just as QT started to beep at her through her comms.

"What? I won't be that much longer. Don't panic. I'm just gunna head on down to the hangar bay and see if I can't lower the shields so we can land inside. This place is great! I really think a lot of this might be salvageable. On the inside, it looks practically new! I think I might be able to get the power going again, if I just-"

She snapped her mouth shut at the sound of footsteps.

"QT? I thought you said this place was abandoned?"
The droid let out a low beep.
"Well, something is out there."
Another low whistle.
"...QT, you've been scanning this whole time, right?"
Another beep in the affirmative.
"And nothing came up?"
Again.
"QT, run a diagnostics on the Inferno's scanners. We didn't pick up a giant space station, it's possible we didn't pick up another ship too."

There was silence as the girl waited, back pressed against the wall, out of sight. Then QT reluctantly answered. Felicity cursed. Her ships scanners were offline! That explained so much about today! Now she had company, and they probably already knew she was there.

Her finger closed over her blaster and she waited.

Inside one of the stations controls rooms a dark haired man sat with his boots propped up on the console. For now his Force presence was suppressed, an act that seemed to keep his body more stable. As he flipped idly through the stations surviving records, a tuk'ata and alchemically altered vornskr lay asleep around his chair.

After a few centuries a person learned a few tricks, not that the station's security had been terribly good to begin with. So far nothing of note was apparent in the databanks, but he had a habit of finding the most useful information in places that everyone else thought empty. Of course getting the life support systems turned back on had been a challenge, but apparently the inside of the station worked better than one would expect from outside.

Suddenly the otherwise silent halls resounded with sound. The sound of many people. Craning his neck back to listen a smile spread slowly across his face. "It seems we have visitors. We really must meet them."

As he chuckled to himself, the beasts at his feet stood and shook themselves. Hunger glinted in their eyes.

When Felicity stepped out with her hands in the air, she would likely be blinded for a moment by the light of a flashlight. Myuri lowerd the light down to ground level, illuminating her without blinding her, revealing his Imperial Armored flight suit. "Felicity Mason of Naboo is it? You should have sent out an SOS signal and followed standard procedure. Well, that is what i would say, but we are patrolling this area of space for a reason. Pirates and all. Consider yourself lucky, you found an Imperial in a giving mood." It was clear in his tone that he was not thinking about pressing any charges for breaking regulation. In this area of space, it was better safe then sorry.

He let go of the handle of his blaster pistol, looking around a bit. "Just you onboard the station then is it? If you don't mind, tell your people to make themselves known. In the mean time, i need to get into contact with command and find out how they want to deal with your engine trouble." Myuri put a hand against his helmet, which by now she could tell had a pair of horns coming out from it, oddly long and pointed, marking him as a Devaroninan.

"Yes Commander, this is Captain Myuri. Yes sir i have a report, one Felicity Mason of Naboo. Here to salvage parts to fix her ships engine. Only her, her co-pilot and droid are on the freighter, Miss Mason is the only one on the station. Alright sir, i will tell her." Myuri nodded, closing the transmission. "Command says you have thirty minutes to look around for the salvage you need before we will be sending our people on board. We will need to have a breif investigation of your ship however. Standard procedure, controband investigation, make sure nothing is illegal. You are a spacer i figure, you know the drill." He was far more laid back then most any other Imperials one might meet. He just didn't care to deal with all the bantha fodder that was proper code and regulation when command wasn't around to hear him 'steeping out of line'.

Though part of the reason he was going to be following her around was to make sure she was not a rebel in disquise. An explosion on their vessel for example would be a very... Untimely accident that would not look good on anyones record.

Felicity Mason

Sweet stars above. This was not how this was supposed to go. She'd expected maybe some issues with transportation, or maybe she'd run into a reactor leak. But this? Imperial agents? This was annoying. She was getting really sick of the Empire getting in her way.

"I am taking my helmet off," she informed him before reaching up to unseal the transparasteel helmet. Finally free of it, she shook her long blond ponytail until it fell loose down her back. "Now I am going to reach for my comms, alright? Don't shoot. My weapon is on my other hip. You can come and take it if you-"

"I do not believe you are supposed to be here,"

The girl flinched at the voice, dropping her helmet in surprise. It hit the ground hard and rolled into the shadows. She'd have to grab it later. A space suit was expensive, and she was saving her credits to pay the bounty she put out on her Father.

The blonde said nothing, peering into the shadows for the voice. This was something... familiar, yet so different. Why? The answer was clear.

Sith.

"My, how touchy," Kaz replied giving a wide grin; his teeth appearing perhaps a bit too sharp for a human. "I'm afraid I left my ID in my other pair of pants."

As he spoke, he let his hold on his Force powers release. Invisible, the Darkside began to seep from his body. To a normal person nothing would seem to change, but to someone trained in the Force they would feel that something about Kaz's body was somehow... wrong. As he reached out with the Force two minds touched his.

Within just a few minutes a low growl came from both behind Kaz and behind the woman. The tuk'ata with its size was certainly menacing, but the vornskr behind the sith was the more dangerous beast. It's alchemically enhanced hide was rough and covered in spikes. Its tail was long and would easily pierce lighter armor.

And it was hungry. Through his connection with it, Kaz could taste the Force talent coming from the woman. His eyes tracked to her, the hunger mirrored in their gray intensity. "Well hello there."

The Imperial Pilot was not even force sensitive so he neither felt nor saw anything from Kaz. Though what he was himself feeling was a great and intense annoyance at the mans fillipancy. 'I left my ID in my other pants' indeed! "Yeah you are a really funny guy. Hands up i am searching you for weapons or controband."

By the very short lived and awkward communication between Felicity and the unknown man the Devaronian figured that they did not know each other. That or they were playing a very good lying game. Either way he repoted in the second 'arrival' and was told for this moment in time to keep an eye on them and to not let them leave. It was about the time when he was not to far away from Kaz tha the pair of beasts growled. He didn't know anything about alchemy or sith made beasts. But that was one fething nasty beastie and he didn't need to know about the force or alchemy to know that.

"The feth is that ugly beastie... Some guard dog of yours?" Myuri asked, choosing to not take a step closer untill he knew more about the situation. He got the feeling more was going on here then he knew. Put simply he has a 'bad feeling about this'.

Yup. Definitely a Sith. The dramatics! Uncle B always said Sith had a flair for drama. Hell, her father sure did. Always making a sweeping enterence, dramatic monologues, standing like a stage actor.

The blonde actually face palmed. The worst part? This imperial agent had no idea what he was in for. Felicity on the other hand, well, she was ready to either talk her way out of this, or make a bold and daring escape. Like she was really going to fight a probably ages old Sith with magic space puppies. Really? She had a short fuse, and a reputation for starting fights, but she didn't exactly have a death wish.

"Right. So... This is going to sound dumb," she interjected, "But you live here, right? Uh... Sorry about sneaking on board and trying to steal your stuff. Oh, and real sorry about the terminal I butchered down the hall. That one was my bad."

Yeah. Felicity was not new to spooky sithy space wizards. It was always best to be honest and straightforward with them. And polite. Passion was what fueled them, her Father told her once. Anger could come quickly.

"You'll have to, ah, forgive the imperial. I don't think he has any experience with..." How would she phrase this? "Your kind."

The blonde winced. Not exactly the best way to say that. In her headpiece, her droid began to beep at her frantically. Right. She was supposed to check in. Oops. She hoped Owain wasn't freaking out about now.

"More company? How nice, I do so love making new friends."

Such things like Empires or commanders did not concern Kaz much. Even the theoretical amiability between the Galactic Empire and Sith Order were of little real concern to him. Few would consider him a dedicated member of the Order. However, he was not the type to spread death and destruction just for amusement.

Not that they were not amusing...

With an odd swagger, the sith made his way around the Imperials toward the woman. Leaning against a bulkhead he gave her a wry smile. "So come here often?" As he asked the sith hound walked up and made a low whining noise. Looking at it Kaz spoke in a soothing voice. "Now now, we're all friends here. It would be rude to eat them."

Myuri could tell that such things did not convern Kaz, not in the least. How could he tell this? Because anyone who cared in the least little bit about the Empire would known that a Imperial Inspection done by a Commander was a slow and scrupulous down to the tiny details. This meant several things, one was that this person was indeed crazy, possibly insane. Or maybe, just maybe, someone who an inspection meant nothing.

The more he thought about it, the more he leaned to somewhere between crazy and insane.

When the man leaned against the bulkhead and asked if Felicity 'came here often', this only compounded his previous thought. And while he understood Felicity's desire to leave, she was also one of the people with a inspection date.

"Well, i wouldn't mind if you showed yourself out miss. But my brass would take exception to that, and that exception would be taken out on me. So please stay put."

He didn't like giving out strict Imperial Law. He liked it being brought back onto his head even less however.

Felicity Mason, Kaz Valnor,

"Well, mister Imperial, if you don't tell your boss, I won't either. Just pretend I was never here."

Never mind the fact that he already called the encounter in. That was another reason she was in a hurt to get out. If they could get to lightspeed before the Imps got here, she might have a chance of not being recognized.

Then the Sith spoke up.
This encounter had just gone from a little awkward to straight up weird. Felicity for the first time in her life, was speechless. Was this Sith being... friendly? Or was it a trap? Either way, she needed out of here. She finally got over her apparent shock long enough to respond.

"Err... That's very kind, but I think I can find my way. Thank you."

She glanced at the Imperial, almost daring him to stop her.

Disappointment might have flashed across Kaz's features at the woman's refusal, but the changes in his expression were too fast to follow. After a few seconds they settled on something that might charitably be considered a gentle smile.

"Well that is a pity, and here I thought we might have the chance to explore the Galaxy together. Perhaps next time."

Then the Imperial spoke. At the alien's words, Kaz's features seemed to change, giving off the feeling of a feral animal. His beasts began to growl as three pairs of eyes locked gazes on the offender. "You dare try and get in her way?"