Bad Luck on Coruscant

I woke with a start, breathing heavily and sweating profusely, and looked around for danger. Satisfied that I wasn't in any immediate danger, I fell back to the bed and tried to slow my breathing. I checked the time and I still had about three hours before I had to be at the meeting. I sighed deeply and punched the bed a few times. No rest for the wicked. I sighed again, got up, and went to the washroom. After cleaning myself up, I looked in the mirror. I looked at the scars I had all over me, specifically the ones on my chest. Lucky, they said. Heh, not the right kind of luck.

I went to the closet and put on the only other thing in there besides sleeping garments, a uniform. It was gray pants with a blue stripe running down the side, a blue shirt and a gray jacket with blue stripes running down the arms. With that on, I decided to take a walk around the ship. To say it was a maze is an understatement. Every time I asked directions to a particular place, I ended up at the opposite end of the ship. Finally, I gave up and just wandered around. Somehow I managed to find my way to the chow hall. I was looking for somewhere to sit in the sea of troops when I saw an empty table on the outskirts of the mass. I weaved through the tables until I made it to the table, then sat down and ate.

I was almost finished eating when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand. I got the feeling I was being watched and I looked around for the spy. A robed figure caught my attention, standing near the entrance of the chow hall. It didn't show any outward signs of vigilance but I knew it was looking at me. Might as well go introduce myself. I got up and disposed of my tray before making a bee line to the robed figure. I excepted it to shift or move away, but it just stood perfectly still.

"You seem a little out of place on this warship." I began, moving next to it to lean on the wall.

"As do you, bounty hunter." She replied, her voice finally giving away something about her, even if it's as simple as her gender. How does she know about me?

"Heh, what are you, a Jettise to tell me about myself?" I replied brushing off her attempt to unnerve me.

"Are all Mandolorians as astute as you?" She replied brushing her robe to the side to flash her lightsaber. Well, don't you look like a di'kut now, Talyc?

"Only in the morning" I replied cooly, not letting my surprise show. "After that, we realize what we're doing and put a stop to the madness."

"You use jokes often to hide your emotions, don’t you?" she said, "So, in all honesty, what brings a Mandolorian bounty hunter to the war on the Republic's side?"

"Now, what makes you say I'm a bounty hunter?" I asked, attempting to sound innocent.

"You have the demeanor of a soldier without the uptight attitude, you look relaxed but in reality you're watching everything around you, and the fact that you're Mandalorian just clinches it, in my opinion." She replied as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Heh, fair enough, but I'm no longer in that line of business," I said.

"Obviously, the uniform gives that away, which is why I ask, what are you doing on this warship?"

"My services are being rendered to the GAR in one of the few ways they can be," I replied vaguely. I checked the time and saw that it was close to the time of the meeting, "However, I really must be going, things to do, people to see. A pleasure to meet you, Jedi...?"

"St. Croix, Isabella St. Croix. The pleasure was all mine, Mr....?"

"Captain. Verd, Talyc Verd. I'm sure we'll meet again, Miss St. Croix." I replied, emphasizing the rank. Not very impressive sounding but I might as well milk this for all it's worth. I pushed off the wall and made my way back to maze of hallways catching a glimpse of a human face under the hood of the robe. Just a glimpse though, as she bowed her head to hide in the recesses of her hood. With that interesting conversation gone, I now had the dread of getting lost in the ship again. Luckily, I managed find my way to the conference room before the meeting actually started, so I made my way to the head of the table.

The officers filed in, armor identical yet different. They all had the red stripes running over their armor but they had all added their own slight variances to the armor, one of them had their shoulder plate curved up ward, almost like a crib for something, and bandoliers that looked like they carried large shells, another had vibroblade sheaths all over his armor, and the last had a lot more plates on his right arm. Compared to them, Rock came off as plain, having made no noticeable alterations to his armor. They took their places at the table and sat down.

"Well, now that we're all here..." Rock began.

"Sorry kids," I said, cutting him off, "the whole gang isn't here yet,"

"Last I checked, there were four platoons in the five-oh-five," He replied, irritated at the interruption. "Each one is assigned one lieutenant, all of which are here. So, as I was saying..." Just then, the pilots barged in nearly falling over one another. After seeing us, they scrambled to line up and salute.

"We apologize for being late, sir! We didn't realize we were a part of this meeting until we checked our messages." One of them said. Rock turned to me, a vein visibly throbbing on his forehead.

"At ease, gentlemen. My fault for giving you such late and unexpected notice. Take a seat and we can finally get started with the briefing," I said motioning to the chairs. Once they had sat down, I worked the controls that activated the holoprojector at the center of the table. The familiar shape of Alzoc III appeared. "Welcome, gentlemen, to Alzoc III. Population, generally under 100, until the CIS decided to make a summer home here. Our company has been tasked with the investigation and destruction of this base, there by disrupting CIS plans for the planet and showing that ours is definitely bigger than theirs. Now, the recon that was sent to the base has gone dark, providing minimal information on the details and operations of the base. What was gathered isn't gonna be giving anyone warm and fuzzy feelings about this mission. Heavily fortified base, AA guns along the walls, troops that are never under company strength but can get as high as battalion strength. These guys took the course on how to keep away unwanted visitors. Any questions so far?"

"Just one, who the hell are you?" The one with the affinity for knives asked in a gruff voice. I looked at Rock and saw a smug look flash across his face before going back to the usual grumpy.

"You weren't there yesterday, me saying hello to everyone, introductions and all?" I replied.

"Oh right, I just thought you were a drunk or a nutter that Rock brought for the Jedi. She seems the type to have a loser as a brother," the one with the big shoulder said chuckling. I rubbed my temples as I felt a headache coming on. Rock managed to maintain a neutral face, but I knew he was thoroughly enjoying this.

"Well, again, I'm your new Captain. Which makes me want to ask, what happened to your last Captain?" I replied continuing to rub my temples. The mood in the room shifted, very noticeably, to a very tense state. I looked around and none of the officers would meet my eyes. "Right, guess that's a conversation for another time. Any questions that don't involve my humiliation?"

"Why don't we have a clone captain?" The one with the elaborate right arm armor asked pointedly.

"We were all out of good clone captains, so we scraped the bottom of the barrel and we found him." Rock replied, much to my chagrin, although the other officers laughed.

"Right, if we're all done poking fun at me, we can get back to the briefing," I said, the headache getting worse. I pressed some more buttons and the holoprojector zoomed in on the base. "Because of the defensive capabilities of this base, we're going to need to be a little..... creative on our grand entrance. Which is why I asked the LAAT pilots to join our little briefing." At this, the pilots perked up and sat up straighter. The officers glanced at them, then back at me with curiosity and humor on their faces.

"Have you pilots ever heard of a 'dead drop'?" I asked them. They looked at each other stunned, then proceeded to talk amongst themselves. "This is s discussion, so I would assume this whole mini conference you're having would be open to the group."

"Yes sir, sorry sir." One of them replied looking abashed, "We've only ever heard stories about it sir, we've never attempted one."

"Well, do you think you could do it?" I asked, my hands clasped in front of me.

"We can practice on the vid simulators on board but it would take a few weeks at the least to be able to try it."

"Good, you've got about three or four days to practice and work out the kinks before the real thing."I replied turning my attention back to the hologram. I chuckled inwardly as I saw their faces of disbelief at what I had just given them. The other officers just kept looking at the globe. One of them finally got out of their shock long enough to protest.

"Sir, with all due respect, that's impossible!"

"First off, it's Captain. I have pirate ancestors and I figure I might as well appease them for some luck. Secondly, you could spend as much time as you want attempting to convince me to not make you do this and still get the same answer OR you can get started on the simulations already to lower the chances of us dying in a fiery ball of death and fire. Your choice of course." I replied sitting back. They appeared to want to argue more but then they looked at each other and, with a bit of grumbling, they hurried out. "So, we have our transportation arranged, so now we have to plan the dance itself. I was thinking some cantina music to get everybody in the mood."