Kara hovered the Dusty Nomad over docking bay 68 not entirely sure that entering the bay would be more landing than crash. But the landing thrusters worked fine and she set the ship down in the bay, and lowered the boarding ramp.

She exited the cockpit and went back to the table behind it. "Well, we're here" she told the room, "now I'm going outside so I don't have to breathe this dust anymore." Without waiting for a reply she strode across the room to the nearby airlock where the ramp was. Upon arriving she found that the ramp was not descending as fast as she had expected.

Glad to be on the ground Shishi walked out into the Cargo Pod "M-1, bring your wrench, we'er going out on the town. You other two keep out of trouble, and keep any sticky beaks out of our stuff... " The little droids leap to action. M-1, Shishi's favourite if he had to choose, looked excited to be gettin out of this hold, M-3 though started protesting "Bleep bloop bleep, bzzzt, bloooop"

" NO M-3 , you cant do target practice in the docking bay... not in the ship either! Look, just keep the ship safe, don't blow anything up... and for crying out loud dont go attacking anyone!"

With that Shi steps up to the air lock, watching the boarding ramp descend incredibly slowly, droid companion in tow. Surveying the docking bay he looks for any refuelling systems, checks the available heavy equipment for servicing, then shakes his head doubt we can afford those today he thinks. "Ahh, fresh air Kara, its a pleasantry I had forgotten. Shall we go for a wander? See if there are any job boards nearby? Perhaps discuss business with those gentlemen on the ground down there?"

Kara opens the airlock, letting in a...smell. To city-goers is a familiar smell of oil, machinery, cheap food, and garbage. To those less familiar, it's an olfactory assault.

The ramp begins to extend...very, very, very slowly. Much to the consternation of the three, rather thuggish looking individuals on the ground. However, they either have a great deal of patience or a complete lack of better things to do, and they wait as the ramp creeeeeeakily extends out, the motor straining and groaning.

"...It just needs oil!" Melonie defends after she comes to see what in the Core is making that racket.

Kara looks at Shishi, not sure what he meant by 'fresh air' the stench was unlike anything she had smelled on her travels, it was only slightly preferable to the Nomad's dusty interior. Then she looked at the individuals on the ground "I don't know if I would call them gentlemen..." she said quietly, suspicious of their appearance, the fact that they just happened to be at their boarding ramp with no announced reason and continued to stand there in silence. Perhaps it was a good thing that the ramp wasn't working correctly.

Melonie peers down at them, "Maybe spaceport officials? Or security?"

Finally the ramp touches down. The three Weequay at the bottom look fairly relieved, then straighten up into a professional slouch as they watch you descend.

Melonie adopts Hero Pose #4 (dramatic stride) and goes for a confident approach, excited about her first interaction as Captain Tarkin . "Are you boys here to welcome us to Gerrenthum?"

One of the Weequays spreads his hands wide. "Of course!" He rumbles in deeply accented Basic. "And of course to inform you of the small, one-time docking fee of 25 credits for parking in the extravagance that is...is..." He looks like he's forgotten something until one of his "business partners" whispers in his ears and he perks back up "Port Eccles! Jewel of Gruggan the Hutt! Please, tip as your heart demands."

Shishi eyes off these standover men before quietly mentioning "25 is a reasonable price, even from an extortion ring on an outer rim world... besides you have plenty, you should pay up and move on without a fuss?" The stall is more about giving him the chance for a proper look at the Weequay and this supposed jewel.

Kara followed the others down the ramp, after listening to the Weequay's speech she thought of all the expeditions she had been on that had failed because of all the fees that cropped up in the outer rim, half of her wanted to just pay the fee and move on, the other was sick of all the fees that these groups had a tendency to come up with. Kara stopped slightly behind the others, trying to see if she could figure out anything about these Weequay before proceeding.

"Alrighty! I'm out, see yall folks in a bit."

Behind the others, as he just finished using the Nomad's " refresher", which itself appeared to be competing with the odor filtering through the letting ramp.

As soon as the ramp is down he pushes past the others and strides up to the nearest Weequay.

"Yo guy!" He puts his hand out to shake, not waiting for the stern looking "guard" to reciprocate he turns it into a half hug l.

"So where can one, whose unfortunate enough to have ridden in that mess, get a drink and some grub, bub?"

He pokes the guy in the arm. "I bet you got just the place, when you get off, I gotta get sorted out or else we should have a drink... Ah frell, it can wait... Folks let's go unwind and get to a bar, I invited these chaps here... They can tell us about the port! Mel say hi to..."

He trails off looking at the Weequay to introduce themselves.

"Go on... Say hi back, don't be shy she don't bite... Haha I knew you'd wish she would!! Hahaha, I know, she's a looker, but keep it polite, she's Cap'n Tarkin, that's right T-A-R-K-I-N...."

The Weequays looks a bit nonplussed at the baby Wookiee speaking fluent (if accented) Basic at them. The one whose leg is hugged shakes it slightly, open his mouth to speak, then closes it after the mention of the Tarkin name. The Grand Moff is well known for his brutality even in the Outer Rim, and his home of Eriadu isn't that far down the Lucian Cross. The thugs don't seem frightened, per se, but the oddity of this crew appears to have shaken up their routine a bit.

Melonie starts to issue the familiar denial ("No no, not those Tarkins") when she decides to just roll with it. Maybe it's tied to Vic's plan to pretend like she has more credits than she does?

"Oh, I could use a drink," she says, smiling and swaying up to the lead weequay with the walk that works so well in bars. "So how about it, big guy. Gonna show us around town? Tell us where all the... most interesting people are? I bet you know everyone on Gerrenthum, don't you?" She loops her arm around his and grins up at him through her eyelashes. Surely he has some connections... and maybe his Boss is cuter.

"Course I do, Big Vic's got all the connections," he says almost automatically as his brain still struggles to process the situation. Finally, he looks at his chums and shrugs. They shrug back and follow him as he starts to walk. "Yeah, there's this place, Maddie's Mudhouse, it's got all the taps that don't have parasites in it. I ain't buyin' a drink for no one that ain't named Tarkin, though," he warns his friends (and new friends).

"You wouldn't have any spare atmospheric scrubbers would you?"He says over his shoulder as he leads the group out of the landing area.

"Mizzzzz Tarkin here has had a string of bad luck on this outing. After the pirates jacked her yacht, all she could afford came from what the lady had left in her pocket... and for this... ship , can you imagine? You know the type, rebellious wanting to get back at daddy, especially when he's so conservative... she's just trying to see the world before she follows in her dad's footsteps... He's so insistent on her joining the family business..."

The idea of encouraging the false assumption that usually gives her trouble is a bit nerve wracking, and she wonders if such sketchy people will want to talk to them I'd they think she's affiliated with the Grand Moff. But, she figures it's too late to backtrack now, so she'd better back Vic up. "I've got my own plans," Melonie says, wrinkling her nose at the idea of a career in the military and feeling sorry for Grand Moff Tarkin's real children. "I can't be cooped up on some base . I would look good in uniform, though," she adds.

Big Vic's eyes narrow, and he stops in his tracks as he shakes Melonie off his arm. "Cute. What, you think I was born yesterday? Tell you poodoo what, the fee's fifty creds now, an' I just realized I ain't thirsty." He turns to face the group again, scowling, and his buddies immediately adopt similar expressions.

"Woah, woah, woah big fella, try and set you up and you get a 'tude, play nice... She might not bite, but I do..."

Vic ends the statement with a snarl. He shows his teeth.

Melonie steps in front of Vic quickly, digging in her pocket for the fifty and holds it out for the thug, "Come on, man," she tries to at least soothe their tempers so they don't find the ship vandalized later. "No hard feelings, right? I mean, look at our poor, lovely girl," she gestures at the ship. "She needs some TLC and we're desperate for credits. We had to try ."

Big Vic snatches the chit out of Melonie's hand. "Next time, think about who your're talking to before you try, sweetlips." He whistles sharply, and his two 'friends' follow him out of the landing pad area, leaving the dusty nomads alone for the time being.

Melonie glares at Vic, "I had it. Next time, don't 'help'. You owe me fifty credits and drinks."

"Well done" Kara said to Melonie and Vic, her voice dripping with sarcasm "I don't think I've every seen someone so skillfully give away twice as many credits as necessary." With that Kara turned away from the group and began to walk towards the exit. "Let's go find some way to make some credits, to make up for that" she called over her shoulder. When she reached the exit to the bay, she decided to pause and wait for the others to catch up, it would be hard to get a job for the ship without most of the crew agreeing to it.

"Hey! I had him down to nothing and a possible lead to jobs," she pouts, as she catches up, over the idea that they're gonna have a reputation as bad scammers.

After a second though, she shakes her head, "It doesn't matter, we can get through this. They still liked me when they mentioned Maddie's Mudhouse. At worse, we can get a drink while we decide what to do. At best, maybe we can catch a lead on a job there." She pulls up the bar on her padd to see how far it is, hoping a cab isn't required.

"Well, that was an expensive landing fee..." comes from the small frame of the Gossam standing amongst the group, his beady eyes rolling. "There's a notice board over there, lets check it then go find some more gullible people to give us their credits. A bar is as good a place as any I guess"

Shishi walks across the docking bay to a large holo screen near the door. The board is full of various notices, some missing people, buy and sell notices, people looking for work as ship crew, and even a few business adds. One in particular catches his eye Hykins You-Scrap, it looks to be a scrap yard where you pull the parts yourself Nice, that deserves a visit! What else is on here I wonder?