Scarpa Flek stands still a moment, but ultimately appears satisfied with the sergeant's explanation. "I would have provided tickets, but past experience has shown me that professional soldiers do not always approve of, or appreciate these performances." The guide tilts his head in a distinctly insectoid fashion, then beckons to the three imperials. "If you truly wish to observe this bloodiest of pits in action, I can offer you seats in the dugout? I must caution you.. such ringside viewing is not for the squeamish." The Wookiees seem singularly undaunted by the handler's description of the brutal violence they are about to participate in, but they are apparently entering into it knowingly at least.

"I don't mind" Briar said looking at the other two, slightly surprised by what they had found, after pausing for a second she asked "I would like a chance to ask about the logistics of an operation like this? I've only heard third hand accounts."

"I'll have to talk while I work.. maybe you can help?" Scarpa holds out a collar, similar to the shock collars, but the tines on the inside extend from various minute reservoirs. "Stim collars. An invention of the physician who treats the fighters here. Remotely activated, keeps them in the fight longer."

The Melitto demonstrates clicking a collar into place and activating it. "Most of the logistics are beyond my ken. The Empire, or at least its representatives on Kashyyyk, are compensated for the Wookiees here. When you see the crowds filling the arena, you will understand that these costs, and my own fees... are inconsequential compared to the profits brought in by these fights."

The private box has ample legroom, and a small minibar, with a set of macrobinoculars setting on it. "Help yourself." Jocinda offers her Zeltron guest, extracting and setting up her personal electrobinoculars and collapsible tripod from her bag. Pulling a datapad out, she plugs it into the optics setup and attaches it to the stand.

"The same intuition that makes me a good doctor, also makes me a good recruiter. I see a strength in you, a sense of purpose. Also.. a danger .. which I find curiously attractive, though it's surely not healthy. I don't know who you are, or why you are here.. but I can't help but take notice of you."

The blue-skinned woman continues to calibrate her instruments as she speaks, until a number of flashing beacons ping into existence on the pad's display, just outside the perimeter of the ring. The beacons appear in ones and twos until there are ten in all.

Briar hesitated for a second, knowing what Wookiees are capable of, then she stepped forward and helped Scarpa with the collars. "So, then who pays you to bring the Wookiees here, are they here or somewhere else?" Briar asked casually.

The chitinous plates covering Scarpa's face give nothing away, and the vocoder provides few inflection cues, but the Melitto pauses a moment before responding. "A client informed me of this opportunity, and helped me in securing the contract and necessary licensing. The payments go directly into my account. My contact here at the Ring is the physician, who checks the fighters on arrival, and again when they're de.. departing."

"If your curiosity has been satisfied, it is time.. And if this is a more formal inquiry, it will have to wait." The last bit is not how Agent Ostell is accustomed to being addressed, and reminds her she is somewhat out of her jurisdiction. As the last collar clicks into place, Scarpa steps back and faces the assembled Wookiees. "Gather your weapons, and remember my words: If you should fall, you will find freedom there. But you must fight." The handler grabs his rifle as he leads the way to the sliding door opposite, and punches in the code.

The stormtrooper in coveralls eyes his utterly ruined helmet in silence, as Cani joins the remaining task force officer in exiting the small imperial docking bay. Brecor is an aspiring leader, and recognizes a certain brilliance in the woman's work, but also an... eccentricity that may not lend itself well to group efforts. "Welcome to the task force." He ventures, recalling from the briefing that she is the Intrepid officer whose inadvertent signals intelligence had sparked this investigation into a potential traitor.

Cani is able to obtain the parts she ostensibly came for without a hitch, but her true purpose for this trip is to meet with the Sullustan Ruge Haue. The man's genius had inspired a number of advances in mechatronic engineering during the clone wars, but he had been discredited following an embarrassing defeat blamed on deficiencies found in his "crab tanks." After running across some excerpts from his journals in the AWR archives, she determined to seek him out. His notes could prove useful in her own work, though she was confident in her ability to better apply them. With a little digging, Cani had learned that the disgraced builder was eking out an existence in exile, testing out his bestiatronic creations in the Ring!

Den shakes his head a little as he tries to follow the intricacies of the conversation. "Wait," he would grunt, looking at the others for a moment. "So does he work for the imperials or not?" This was certainly not the scenario that the duros had expected, so he felt it would be best to let the others figure this out before he took any 'action' on behalf of the empire.

V raises a brow, smiling.

Why thank you... I find you very... attractive too~

The female smiled as she purred, walking around the room to lean against the bar, flipping her hair as she sent a smile towards the blue-skinned female.

A recruiter...? For what...?

The female asked curiously.

"Why, I'm recruiting for talent, of course. So tell me. Do you have any talents you'd care to share with me?"

Laughter echoes from the stands, along with a fair amount of booing, as a troupe of entertainers rushes into the stadium unannounced. A Gungan, a Lannik, and a mostly nude Twi'lek woman are being chased around by a dozen or so monkey lizards.

"Ah, yesss." Jocinda trills the 's' on the end so that it comes out almost as a hiss, a slender forked tongue snaking out briefly. "How droll. The absurd antics of the nonhumans, on display for our amusement. Warming up the crowd for the barbaric beasts who will fight to their deaths, to satisfy darker appetites." Her smile does not falter, but her lips part instead to reveal pointed canines; her tone suggests no pleasure in the proceedings, however.

"I have not been entirely forthright with you. I know you arrived here on the Imperial shuttle with the Wookiees. Maybe you are a contractor of some sort, like my Melitto acquaintance Scarpa Flek? Whatever the case, I want you to consider the Empire's position on humanocentric speciesism. It persists in abundance here even, in supposedly neutral territory. Male chauvinism as well. Promising female officers.. alien stormtroopers..all tend to be shipped off to the Outer Rim sooner or later. Think on it. And imagine if things could be different."

V raised her brow.

Are you telling me to... rebel...?

She asked, sauntering over as she whispered her question into the other female’s ear.

I’m listening...

she whispered again.

"Ttthhat is a dangerousss word..." Jocinda hisses sultrily, though her body language stiffens somewhat. Her slender neck pulls away and she tilts her head, so that her slit-like pupils might focus on Veitra's own eyes.

"I am asking you to.. question .. and perhaps influence.. to support the enfranchisement of the marginalized. Not through military or political action, but rather a populist movement. We the fortunate few should do what we can to try to effect change, don't you think?"

Below, the Melitto replies to the discountenanced Duros: "I work for the Empire, indirectly mostly. Also for the Ring. I am hunter and guide for private clients. Scarpa Flek is many things, for those who pay. Contract work."

V hummed.

I can do that... maybe...

she said softly.

But well... it will not be easy...

she whispered again, looking directly into the female’s eyes as she leaned in close.

"Right! Now without further ado, let loose the first wave of Wookiee Warriorrrs!!"

"Alas, the show begins, and I must attend to it." All business now, Jocinda turns back to her instruments and proceeds to track the action in the arena, with the datapad and attached optics she has set up.

Wroshyyyrka grips his spear tightly, a weighted net draped over his other arm. The helmet he has been given is somehow too large for even his head, and the Wookiee fleetingly wonders what manner of warrior had worn it before him. Krrrtac wields a great glaive, while Lewbok holds a teardrop-shaped shield in one hand and a traditional Ryyk blade in the other. The trio form a rough outward-facing triangle in the center of the Ring, as they know not what they face, nor which direction it might come from. What they do see is thousands of faces in the stands above them on all sides, eager to watch them fight and die.

A number of columns rise from the floor of the arena, partially blocking their views of the various entrances. "And now entering the Ring, The Gar-gan-tu-aaaan Gig-or-aaaaan!!" An immense humanoid densely covered in white and gray fur ducks into the arena from one of the dugouts, raising a great knobbed war club in both hands over its head. "Awwhhhrrrr!!" The reigning contender swings the weapon in a mighty arc, shattering a duracrete column and sending the shrapnel flying into the shocked fighters.

The Wookiees charge in with their own battle cries, but their looming adversary recovers from its swing with surprising speed, and swats away their combined attacks as one. The next exchange sends one of the Wookiees flying into a column, but the Gigoran's foot gets tripped up in the net, opening it to a jab with the spear. Howling in pain, it grabs the spear and breaks it over the attacking Wookiee, sending him to his knees.

"Next wave!!" Three more Wookiees enter the Ring, displaying some hesitation, but fighting nonetheless for it... and with no more success against their opponent, who towers a full two heads over the tallest Wookiee present. The laminate plate cuirass protecting its vitals has kept the Wookiees from landing any telling blows. When the final four Wookiee warriors are loosed into the Ring, all frek breaks loose, as a truly behemoth creature erupts from the floor of the arena and scoops up the Gigoran with one great tusk. Flipping the contender into the air over its back, it turns to face the remaining Wookiees.

"Behold Voooor-ti-kusss!! Here to fell all these furred fighters like vermin!" The creature stands on two short legs, with long sweeping arms, not unlike a Rancor- and nearly of a size! A single tusk juts upward from its elongated snout, with a series of similar spines armoring the posterior of its upper body. It wields no weapons in its enormous talon-like claws, but it does not need to.

V raises a brow.

What a bore... all this unnecessary bloodshed...

She said softly. While the wookiees in the ring might have chosen this life for themselves, she always had a soft spot for wookiees, and it resulted in a pang of sympathy as she watched.

Jocinda does not reply, but rather seems distracted, agitated. Activating her comlink, she hails the Melitto below. "Flek. Wesk-1 is unresponsive. Wesk-1 unresponsive." Turning back to Veitra. "This is brutal, but I'm doing what I can here..."

In the arena, the downed Wookiees are groggily regaining their feet, with the exception of one lying crumpled at the base of a column. Scarpa Flek turns to the imperials. "You are men and women of action, yes? No one is paying attention to the single fallen Wookiee. If you check him out, check his collar, you might save him? His life has value. We would pay. There are access tunnels beneath the arena."

Den would visible squint at the alien as he makes the suggestion. "So you're no better than the bounty hunter scum, huh? No loyalty to anything but the credits". Turning back to the others, he would gesture to the wookie while talking in his usual grunting tone. "Come on, we can't just leave him like that. Besides, it might help to have a proper look at what's going on". Truthfully, Den had come to far to turn away from this now. He didn't like being proved wrong, and was convinced this Scarpa was up to something sinister. This may be his chance to prove it. He was however painfully aware that they were limited on tim before they had to return to the shuttles, and wanted to move fast.

Briar looked out at the violence of the ring, she had not planned on getting closer let alone getting within reach of anything in the ring. She looked at Den "If you want to go help, I won't stop you, but I don't think I can do anything to help." she finished then turned to Flek "Doesn't this happen often? Isn't there someone whose job it is the handle such things?" Briar asked, wondering why he was so quick to offer them this chance.

" Death happens often here. Tending to the fallen while a match is ongoing does not. The collars we use are cortosis weave and have never failed before."

Scarpa faces Den. "I will show you the way beneath the arena, that will take you to the access hatch nearest the pillar."

Den would let out an exasperated sigh, shaking his head. "Fine, I'll go, but any funny business from you bug boy and I'll take it real personal" he would grunt. Turning back to the others remaining behind he would speak again. "Won't be long. After this I reckon it's about time we head back to the shuttle".

It is almost certainly a good thing that the Melitto's expressions are inscrutable, at being addressed as bug boy... The insectoid guide opens an access panel from within the dugout. Dug out from what, exactly? Must be a holdover term from traditional terrestrial arenas?

Scarpa leads the way into the labyrinthine maze of passages beneath the amphitheater. The low ceiling forces them both to hunch over a bit, and the linear distance of twenty meters or so requires navigating thrice that from below, to reach the proper hatch. "You might not wish to hear this, but I detect an uncommon sense of decency beneath your coarse exterior. Not many would do this, in your place."

The bout audibly continues to rage overhead, but the roar of the vorantikus is deafening as the hatch slides open. "Stand clear!" A small amount of duracrete rubble falls down into the passage, but nothing substantial. A short ladder leads up into the arena. "We are here. Go quickly."

The Wookiee is indeed quite close now, lying crumpled at the base of a column. Four Wookiees still stand against the beast, another thirty meters beyond.

Den would glance around for a moment at the melitto's comment. "Yeah, well, keep it to yourself alright" he would say in a quiet voice. With that he would rush towards the ladder and begin to hall himself up in a rather ungainly way.

Poking his head out of the hatch cautiously, he would hoist himself out and begin to crawl towards the wookie. "Well mate, it looks like it's your lucky day" he would mutter to the injured wookie. Half crawling and half walking, he would try to hook his arms under the wookies armpits so he an drag him back towards the hatch.

Den's quick field assessment concludes that evacuating the fallen gladiator the way they had taken would likely aggravate internal injuries, perhaps with fatal results. Carefully dragging him just behind cover, the trooper notices the stim-collar still tangled about the Wookiee's throat. Closer inspection reveals that the clasping mechanism has been damaged, but a quick temporary fix is easily made with his multitool, and it chirps to life as the connection is made. A few moments later, he hears Scarpa's voice. "Doctor has him again, leave him for now."

One of the three Wookiees still in the fight has obtained some sort of bowcaster, and though the blue ring-like discharges are clearly not intended to be lethal, the lumbering monster is eventually subdued. The three climb atop the creature and raise their weapons high for the crowd, while also surveying the scene around them, their fallen brethren. Pit droids with stretchers speed into the arena to remove them, now that the match is over.

Scarpa and the three imperials return to the staging area, along with the three Wookiees still standing. Shortly, Jocinda and Veitra join them. "He will live to fight another day, thanks to you." The blue-skinned physician hands a credit stick to Den, then turns to Scarpa. "Sadly, two will not, nor the Gigoran. Have them taken to my shuttle at once." Sharing a brief look with the Wookiees, she leans in to the Zeltron for a quick kiss. "I must go." And she does.

V purrs.

Why don’t you tell me how to contact you?

She calls.

In case I wish for your help...? Or yours mine...?

The departing woman slips Veitra a card with her contact information: Doctor Jocinda Sos, Trauma and Transplant Specialist. "Let us hope you never require mine."