7 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

After we have taken this whole shipment, we will be pretty full. We could pick up more cargo, but with the added cost of operating a ship this full, it would hardly be worth the cost.

Alright, secure this load and head back for additional repairs. Cade tells him.

We'll start looking for buyers while you're laid up. Kara promises.

Very good, sir. We'll get underway immediately.

Cade and Kara bod their farewells and head to the common room in Solus.

Cade and Kara sit across from Darien and Falmok.

Kara looks to Maya, So what does hutuun say?

30 minutes ago, ShockHelix said:

It didn’t take Maya very long to find Falmok, since he’d stayed behind to keep an eye on the prisoner. She was glad he’d let her speak with him alone, and even more so that the prisoner seemed to finally be willing to cut a deal.

“ Hey, the Kyr’tsad prisoner is ready to talk. I’ve called the others to the common room to talk about his terms. ”

Falmok perks his ears up and follows her. Let's gather everyone and let's hear what he has to say..

Darien is relaxed, slouching back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head, supporting his neck. He glances over as Ge'tal walks in and then he turns to Maya. Pirusti, Maysh'la, tion kaysh dinuir gar? Tion gar r'shukur kaysh?

It wasn’t long before they were all gathered in the common room. Maya had to admit she felt a bit out of place. The rest of them had the beskar’gam, but she did not. Truth be told, she wasn’t even certain that they’d even care enough to be willing to go along with her plan. In fact she was surprised they’d even let her bother trying to crack the prisoner. Only a little while ago this had been nothing more then a rescue mission for them. Excluding Ge’tal. Maya still wasn’t sure what that was all about, but Ordo seemed content to take the prisoners, so it didn’t matter all that much. It was probably for the better anyway. Maya thought she’d have likely suggested tying them onto the roof and then detonating the bomb.

” So, as you know, I’ve been attempting to get our Kyr’tsad captive to agree to give up information. I found record that the group we fought with originated from Carlac. After riling up our prisoner, I discovered that his Riduur was on that Kom’rk. ”

” He now believes that we are planning to raid the base on Carlac. What he doesn’t know is that I found out his crew retreated there. What I’ve proposed is that we’ll release him in return for answering all our questions and leaving the Death Watch. To agree to this, he wants a survival kit and a distress beacon so he can signal his Riduur to come get him. ”

” What I propose is that we do so. If the information is valuable enough, selling it to the right parties would be worth far more then his bounty alone. I disabled his helmet, so I can install a tracking beacon before he’s released. If he tries to mislead us or doesn’t abandon Kyr’tsad as he claims he will, it’ll be simple to track him down. ”

Darien stiffened and sat upright when Maysh'la mentioned letting the Kyr'tsad hut'uun go, but after a moments consideration, he relaxes slightly. He exhales through his teeth and turns to Falmok. Tion gar mirdir, vod? Vode? He glances around at each of the team in turn before sighing and shifting in his chair, wishing his rib would hurry up and heal as it complains at the motion.

Kara and Cade share a look, then shrug. We're in. Kara says, Death Watch is getting worse every day.

Cade nodded, Aliit are getting rumours that they're working for that dar'jetti Dooku now..

Falmok looked at Cade, ears flattened began an almost silent snarl. Dar'jetti now? Kriffing hutuune.. Haven't Mando'ade learned that they cant be trusted?

Cade shrugged, They at least pay on time, always have.. you have to give them that.

Kara also indicated some gliffs on Cade's armor, Clan Marev had dealings with them, right?

Cade nodded, Even killed one when they got too cocky back before they went underground.

Falmok hissed. All the more reason to put a stop to Death Watch.

As Ge'tal nods her approval, Darien stands up. Then it sounds like we're settled. Maysh'la, mind if I join you in the questioning, or would that mess up the Kyr'tsad hut'uun's delicate disposition?

They heard the rumble of Liberator 's engines starting up for the trip home as they entered the holding area to interrogate the prisoner. After they concluded their interrogation, they gave him the equipment and turned him loose. After Falmok and Cade went over the cargo again to make sure it was secure, they took off and made for Vorpa'ya to complete their original job.
_______________________

Due to their faster hyperdrive, they arrived a good couple hours before Liberator . In spite of the late hour, Vaerk was waiting expectantly for them out in front of his shop when they came in for a landing, giving Mesh'la Solus 's damage a concerned and slightly irritated look. Darien heads aft from the cockpit and taps Falmok on the shoulder, I'm going to stay here, you guys can go ahead. We shouldn't get any repairs that will take longer than refueling, I don't want to stick around and have to explain to Kyra why we didn't come home.

Falmok nodded enthusiastically, Agreed, ner'vod.

Maya was cautious to exit the Mesh’la Solus when they’d landed, but she knew she’d have to deal with it eventually. Even though she was an adult, she still felt like a child when dealing with Varek. There was just something about him that way. She envied Darien his ability to hide out on the ship.

The old mechanic had crossed his arms as she exited the ship with her backpack, and she sighed before walking over to him. He didn’t say anything once she’d reached him, and she could feel his burning gaze on her even with the helmet covering his face.

she stood there in silence for nearly a minute before he finally spoke. “ Well ?”

Maya winced. “ I’m fine. ”

” Your ship? ”

” Shot down. ”

“ Your target? ”

“ They dealt with it. ” Maya didn’t even bother trying to claim any responsibility. She’d been next to useless in dealing with the base. Besides the bomb of course, and the droid she’d deactivated.

“ Gar di’kut. ”

” I know .”

Varek stood there for a moment, seeming to contemplate, before finally speaking up again. “ You aren’t getting another ship.”

That came almost like a slap in the face. There were plenty of husks in his junkyard that she could fix up. And the account she might be able to access on Carlac was such a good opportunity. Albeit a dangerous one. At the very least she could stake out the area and see what the Death Watch were up to.

” You keep putting off making your Beskar’gam. I don’t want any more excuses, and I’m not helping you until you do. You have everything you need .”

That was.... Varek was right. She’d been putting it off. In truth, part of her was scared to do it. But she needed to. Maya had lost count of the number of times she’d nearly died to blaster fire. At the very least, she could work on the plating in her spare time.

” Fine ,” was all she replied. He was right and that was that. No point arguing over it. Although, perhaps there was a way for her to pursue her new leads and work on her beskar’gam. . .

Before Maya could contemplate her idea further, her datapad began to beep, and she quickly fumbled after it. There was no way to spoof her signature to a different location now, but she wasn’t too worried about that. She didn’t want anyone tracing her back to Vaerk’s place anyway, so if they managed to track her down, better that they realize the source was her datapad.

” Kriff! I was trying to break into the traders account when they shut the system off. I need to focus on this. ”

Quickly navigating through, and taking a seat in the direct, Maya focused on the datapad, traversing the system to see if her backdoor was still functional.

Varek shook his head as Maya took a seat in the dirt, leaving her be and heading over to where the others had come out of the ship. “ Thanks for bringing her back. Darned girl’s too headstrong for her own good. Looks like you got into a scrape along the way. If you’d like I can fix her up for free this time? On account of you bringing her back. ”

—-

Getting back into the system wasn’t that hard, not with the backdoor Maya had setup. However, she’d nearly tripped the alarm on entering. Quickly, she deactivated the initial security system, as well as the overall detection system as well for the general system. It wasn’t a perfect workaround, but it served its purpose well enough. The first order of business was giving her backdoor a bypass through the security system, something she’d neglected to do last time. Next she went back to work on determining more information about the administrator’s account. They’d shut things down last time, but it was possible she’d be able to disable their access remotely. It wasn’t difficult to locate it in the system with the information she’d previously gotten. More importantly, she was able to trace the local address to Worlport. From there it was a simple matter to narrow down the name of the organization.

Re-entering the account number, she was quickly able to access the overview screen and gave a small whistle at seeing the number. A few hundred thousand credits would serve well for getting a new ship. It took her a moment to realize that she’d triggered the alarm by accessing the account, and she cursed under her breath. She should’ve taken more cautionary measures, but there was nothing to do about it now. Already her data pad was being pinged. A problem to be certain, but if she could squeeze out enough time it wouldn’t matter. She quickly used the administrator’ s ping to ping him back. She definitely had the right access port, and while he was still trying to ping her, Maya removed him from the system.

It wasn’t a permanent option, but she attempted to remove the administrator’s account access, and was surprised to find that it had immediately granted the account access again. It was a clever work around, and one she hadn’t expected. She removed the account from the system again, changing his password in the process, and was relieved to see it had bought her the time she’d needed. Quickly, she added an alias, Tyra Bryn as an authenticated user to the account, along with a simple verification code - the date that the Death Watch had killed her parents. It wouldn’t mean anything to most, but to her it was unforgettable.

The administrator was back online, and pinging her again, but it didn’t matter. He was more focused on isolating her location and signature then on what she had done. Her changes secure, she deleted the record of adding the account, and was surprised to find traces of Gorka the Hutt in the system. Definitely not a criminal syndicate she wanted to cross, but without the record of her changes it wouldn’t matter. More influential organizations wouldn’t have been so slopping with their security. Another ping warned her that she was fully being traced now, but it didn’t matter. They’d know which planet she was on, and that her data pad was operating under her Shriek Hawk alias. But her real name and exact location weren’t given away yet.

Double checking her work quickly, she severed the connection to the system. She’d perhaps been too careless in her efforts, but Maya had pulled out before any real damage had been done. Unfortunately however, there was only one problem. The administrator had her signature, and there was only one way to ensure her methods were different enough to avoid pinning her down. She stood up and tossed the data pad into the dirt, pulling out her blaster and shooting the data pad repeatedly until it was nothing but a hunk of burned metal and wires. She’d need to get the pieces to make a new one, with a proper data spike and slicing gear again. She lamented the loss of her schematics, but she hadn’t put them to much use anyway. Better to save herself the future trouble. She’d get more then enough credits from the gunrunners account to make up for the loss.

She eyed the Solus, mind returning to her earlier thoughts of her lost ship. If she played her cards right, she might just have a ride to Ord Mantell. After all, she didn’t need that many credits. Not if she didn’t need a ship.

Cade and Kara walk up to Varek with a datapad in hand.

Su cuy'gar Varek, Kara greets him, handing over the datapad. Got a shopping list for Liberator , would you be able to outfit the upgrades?

We had some time to asses our last combat sortie with Captain Lyn, and we think she needs some extra teeth , Cade adds.

Vaerk nodded, considering the requests that they were making. " Aye, I can do it. It'll take some time. I'll give you half off for the repairs. The retrofit will run you a bit more though. Gonna take some time to order what I don't have on hand. "

Kandosii! Kara grinned. Sounds like a plan, how long do you think until she's combat ready?

" Combat ready? About two months, give or take a week. Looks like she's taken quite a beating, so it'll mostly be the repairs. It'd be faster in a dry dock, but cost a helluva lot more, " Vaerk explained. He didn't bother including Maya in his estimations. Knowing that girl, she was probably already trying to find a way offworld for whatever 'account' it was she'd started blathering on about.

Heading back on board the ship, Maya made her way to where Darien was hiding out. She had decided to ask him first. It was hard to determine who exactly was in charge on this ship without directly asking, but she'd long realized that was true for any Mandalorian crew. Still the others seemed to respect his opinion well, and he seemed reasonable enough. Once she'd located him, she took a seat across from him, leaning back into the chair. " How're you feeling? "

He sets his datapad down on the table and gives a lopsided grin, I'm doing alright. I just can't move. At all. Then it hurts. You and Vhal certainly did a better job than that di'kutla medic. It felt like he was trying to cut me open. What's up?

Cade touched Vaerk's shoulder, We know an ori'gotabor, named Kam Tanni. We could give him a call and he could collaborate with you. We could start our own shipyard he said with a smile.

Vaerk stroked his chin, contemplating the offer. " I don't know about that. I barely have enough business to keep this place running. Couldn't hurt to have him contact me though. Maybe he could convince some customers to get their work done here. "

" Well, " Maya began a bit timidly, trying to choose her words carefully. " I took a datapad from one of those 'traders'. Managed to hack into the account. Three hundred thousand credits just sitting there with no one to claim it. Problem is, I'd need to go to Ord Mantell to take it. And you saw what happened to my ship. "

" So, hear me out. You could use an engineer on your ship. I'm good with tech. Really good. And I can brush up on my medical skills. I know you don't have much space, but I can toss a bunk in one of the engine controls, stick my tools in corner, and I'll be all set. You take me on, it'll help you out, and I'll split that three-hundred-k with the rest of you. All I ask is that you humor my hindrance of Kyr'tsad from time to time. "

He lets out a low whistle when she mentions the money, and picks up his datapad as she continues talking.

When she finishes, he sets it down and looks up at her. You make a convincing case. I'll have to run it past the others, but I think we have a place for you. He waves away her mention of space, We've got more space than it looks like, there's a pair of bunks across from Cade and Kara's room that ought to do nicely for you and Ge'tal. As for your grudge against Kyr'tsad? We'd gladly humor you. Vhal and I have a grudge of our own and would be happy to join you every so often. He lowers his voice slightly and gets a bit more serious. I'm not questioning your skills, but you don't have beskar'gam. We take a lot of heat, and I mean a lot . He jabs his finger into the table to emphasize the point. Burk'yc bora. Are you sure you can take it? I wouldn't want to be the one to have to tell Vaerk that his "ner ad'ika" r'ash'amur. Ibac n'slanar pirusti. Nayc shekemir... He trails off and shudders almost imperceptibly. The datapad beeps and he picks it back up.

Burk'yc bora = dangerous job. Ner a d'ika r'ashamur = Vaerk's nickname for Maya: "My little girl/my daughter/my little one" had died. Ibac n'slanar pirusti. Nayc shekemir... = that wouldn't go well. Not after... (follow is the literal translation, but I was improvising a little bit) By the way, sorry it took me so long to get it up, I rewrote the whole thing a few times

" He'd probably be relieved, honestly, " she said, smiling. " I've been going off on my own for a while now. Having someone to watch my back would be a weight off his shoulders. But that's one more reason I need to go to Ord Mantell. Vaerk taught me how to make my own Beskar'gam. To do that, I'll need to buy some supplies. And with the credits, I can buy what I need on Ord Mantell. "

Ori'jate. He plunks the datapad down on the table and spins it towards Maya to reveal a bounty posting from Tipping Point. And this is just another reason to go. Gorka the Hutt. 44,000 credits factoring in the hazard pay. Not as big a deal as the vault, but more of a sure thing. They might have gotten spooked and moved their assets. This'll at least ensure that this trip isn't a waste.