Money Talks- Act 2: In Transit

Nikki had never been one to enjoy space travel. It was always cramped, stuffy, and it always took far too long. But given the circumstances of this peticular trip things were even more uncomfortable if it were possible. 6 strangers flying towards a possible suicide mission, each with their own backgrounds, their own skills and their own grudges. To make it that much more difficult Nikki was not one to overly socialize and make friends. In fact she had spent most of the trip so far in silent preperation, checking and re checking her gear, and studying every piece of info she could get.

The young woman sat at the edge of her bed now, her long baid of hair hanging over her shoulder and contrasting sharply with the clean white tank top she wore. Without her armor most people would never have guessed that she was a mandalorian, she just did not look the part. In fact if she had not had the bony spikes potruding from her arms, legs and shoulders most would not even guess that she was dangerous.

All of Nikki's gear was stored in a footlocker on the other end of the room. All except fer her helmet, which sat proudly on top of the footlocker, acting as a marker so to speak so that everyone else would know that her gear was stored there. Of course she had no concern as to people rumaging through her stuff, her roomates were after all the captain of the ship and another mandalorian.

This peticular morning Nikki had spent in one of the hanger bays working out. It had been nothing fancy or technical, just lifting and moving crates of supplies, and generally using what she had in stock to push her body and keep limber. Though now she wondered if perhaps some of her comrade's would like to train with her. After all one could learn alot about another from training with them. She made a mental note to check, or atleast ask Arwyn.

A knock at the door woke Nikki from her thoughts. It was Grendelev her commanding officer for this mission. She hesitated for only a moment obviously he had wanted to come in. She had wanted to grab her gear, get suited up, but that would take too long. She let out a small sigh before speaking. "You may enter..." Her voice was soft and gentle not the voice one expected from a mandalorian, and certainly not the way she talked when she was in her armor. She stood up from the bed and walked over to her foot locker pulling a pair of grey pants from inside. She sat back down on the bed with the pants and proceeded with the task of putting them on without shredding them on her shin and knee spikes. As she did so she looked up to speak to Grendelev. "WHat can I do for you?"

When the alarm in her helmet went off Arwyn awoke almost instantly, jerking awake and grabbing her E-11 blaster rifle. It took her a moment to realize that it was only the alarm she'd set in her helmet that was going off. She placed the helmet on her head and turned it off, sighing and yawning as she did so. Taking the helmet off she swung her legs over the side of the bed and stretched her arms out. It was possibly the best night's sleep she'd gotten in years. She mentally told herself to look into the hotel's furniture supplier when she got done with this mission. Another task set firmly in her brain for an unforseen future date.

That done she stood, stretched again and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, then went to grab a glass of water. The Mandalorian finished off her water and set it on the counter, then went to the living area to begin her stretches and excercise. First she widened her stance a little and lifted a foot up onto one of the tall chairs in the room, before slowly scooting backwards, almost doing a sort of diagonal splits as she worked the muscles of her hamstrings and side leg muscles.

Then she dropped to the floor and started her excercises, starting with military push ups, crunches, then moving onto jumping jacks, and chin ups, working every part of her body. Her excercises done, she went into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready to meet the others at the ship.

10 minutes later....

She was dressed in her armor and had all her weapons in place. She left the room like she'd found it, everything neat and tidy, she looked back on the room as she approached the door and smiled, shaking her head. Whoever would've thought that I would get to stay in a place like this at someone else's expense she thought as she rechecked her weapons, and extra ammuntion. Sure that she had everything she'd came with, including Grendelev's presents, she opened the door, walked out and closed the door behind her. As she started down the long hallway to the turbolift, her helmet in the crook of her arm, she spotted the same old lady she'd run into on her way to the room the evening before. She immediately felt the coals start to burn in the depths of her soul. The old woman was obviously of wealthy decent, and carried herself with a provocative, arrogant air that told everyone she walked past of her monitary fortune and that she thought herself better than everyone else. This time however, an older gentlemen hung on her arm, his strut equally as pronounced and demanding but, somewhat less arogant. His facial expressions went from calm satisfaction to fearful suprise, while hers remained arrogantly the same. Arwyn knew there were people like this with actual power and influence far greater than anything the old crow could possibly have, and knew that the consequences of defying those types were grave so, she tried to maintain her air of pleasant refreshment in preparation for when she would eventually cross paths with them.

As she drew closer to the couple, she could see the old scow's features turn into a snarl of disgust and contempt. What in all the galaxy is this woman's problem?[/i] the Mandalorian thought as her feet carried her ever closer to the old woman, who refused to even give Arwyn the descency of moving over so they could both pass comfortably.
The old gentleman started to move out of the way but, the old scow held him tight not letting him move an inch. Arwyn refused to give in to the woman's antics and carried on. Arwyn hesitated long enough as she moved aside politely, to catch the old noble's distainful comment clearly of "Mandalorian filth!" Not that she had tried to hide her disdain. Arwyn thought the man was going to have a heart attack right then and there, and die.

"Excuse me?" Arwyn said stopping and balling her fist.
The old woman turned around almost instantly, her face flush with anger that someone as lowly as Arwyn was calling her out on her rude comment. "I said, you're Mandalorian filth tramp! Your kind doesn't belong here! You taint the very air of this place. What are you going to do about it?!" the old crow said stepping up to within an inch of Arwyn's pretty face. Arwyn's eyes reflected the anger that was burning inside but, her face was quite the opposite, it reflected a calm that belied anything known about the Mandalorians. Arwyn faced her opponent full on, staring into the woman's eyes as she said "Oh, nothing you won't recover from." The man's face paled even more as his eyes went to the blaster on her hip "please miss! Please don't kill us."

Arwyn looked at the couple and snorted "Kill you?" the Mandalorian shook her head "you're not worth the time I'd give to a Cannok". Arwyn snorted and lifted the woman from her feet, raising her a full two feet in the air as easily as she would a small child and pinned her against the wall "next time keep your fierfeking arruetti mouth shut, or the next time you insult a Mandalorian, they won't be so forgiving". With that she released her grip on the scow and let gravity take it's course. She looked to the man and her features softened a little, in truth she felt sorry for him for being attached to such a woman, and she shrugged "I do appreciate your efforts however. Thanks." She resumed her trek to the ship with the shocked and frightened expressions of the patrons behind her, and a smile on her lips.

When she arrived at the ship she had plenty of time to board and make her way to the set of rooms set aside for everyone. The thought of the 6 of them, people with very different and varying backgrounds, traveling together over a long period of time, amused Arwyn for reasons she couldn't quite pin down at first. Then she realized it was the appearance of the group that gave her her mirth. A free lance pilot, 2 Mandalorians, an Ubese Hunter, a Corellian Security Officer, and two as yet unknown civiliants, certainly made a motley crew in her book, and none of them would have worked together naturally if they had not been hired.
They were too different from each other to get along easily and even now, the situation held the possibility of blowing up like a powder keg. Arwyn though, was feeling pretty good, despite what had happened only a few minutes earlier back at the hotel.

When she arrived and boarded the ship, she went directly to the guest rooms. To her suprise, she found Nikki already in one of the rooms and a locker already claimed, if her helmet on top of it was any indicator. "Se'cuy gar ner vod" Arwyn nodded to Nikki, taking note of the lack of armor and the spiked shoulder pauldrons, knee and elbow guards as she greeted her in the customary Mandalorian fashion. Stepping through and reflexively closing the door behind her, she decided to take a look around. The room was big enough for 4 people to sleep comfortably in their own cot, more if there was some kind emergency, other than that and the current occupants, it was barren save for a line of lockers set against the wall. "Guess it's just us girls" Arwyn had said as she placed her helmet on a locker next to Nikki's and placed her weapons and equipment inside, along with the Beskar plates.

That was five days ago.

Most of the time in between had mostly been spent either in the cargo bay excercising, practicing her unarmed combat by herself, or with a sparring partner when she was able to get one, which wasn't too hard with how high the tensions tended to run, or joining the group at chow times. Most of the rest of the small time that was left was spent catching up with Nikki, her room mate. They'd first bumped into her back on Taris when Arwyn, her older brother Cirith, and their mutual friend Tor Otani went on a bonding mission together to mend past war wounds. In the end, it had worked, and it was all thanks to Tor. It was amazing how theraputic shooting a field full of Rakghouls and running for your life could be.

Arwyn flopped back onto one of the empty beds and crossed her arms behind her head. She started thinking on the mission and the information Winter had been able to dig up. Then what seemed as only moments later, there was a knock on their door.

She guessed it was Grendelev coming to check up on his passengers, making sure everyone was alright and not causing any trouble. Nikki spoke first, allowing the person entrance and a second later Grendelev stepped through. Arwyn sat up and scooted herself up against the wall, a single leg on the bed with her arms resting on her knee.

"What's up boss? Come to make sure your employees aren't making trouble?" Arwyn said with barely a hint of annoyance, her tone conveying as such although Arwyn herself didn't hear it in her voice. Though she wouldn't admit to it, the old woman had apparently struck a nerve, one that she was slow to forget subconsciously. She knew it was stupid to hold onto her anger over what many would consider a small offense but, prejudice, especially against her own culture, ticked her off to no end. She'd pushed the matter to the side as soon as she had started to near the ship, thinking it better to reflect the air of an easy refreshing night, than that of a bad morning. Unlike others, Arwyn loved space travel, it relaxed her. The thrum of the hyperdrive, the whirring of various mechanical parts in the ship and the otherwise quiet of space travel was something she'd grown up with, and she had learned to appreciate the moments.

Arwyn looked to Grendelev as she forced herself to stay in the here and now, wondering what it was he had come for.

Nikki called out and told him he could come in, and he did so without delay. The Samuac was quiet, though the other woman more than made up for it. "Exactly so, Arwyn, exactly so," Konstantin replied peaceably. He did not take more than a step or two into the room, nor did he lean against the wall or do anything to relax himself; he remained standing, his posture just a bit slack, gloved hands open at his side as he surveyed the two of them. His gaze lingered on Arwyn, and the merest suggestion of a smirk lightened his features very, very, subtly.

"You sound put out, and let me guess why," the old man said, his voice lightening somewhat. "An old woman gave you insult in the hallway at the hotel, and you put her in her place despite her husband's protestations, am I right?" He held up a hand to forestall any outcry. "A janitor saw everything, and the desk clerk relayed the situation to me, knowing that you were in my party," he explained. "I spread some credits around to make sure the story didn't go any farther; we don't need people remembering us, at any stage of this venture.

"I do not disapprove, and I doubt my disapproval would mean much to you in any case, but it's clear to me the situation is still on your mind, even if you don't realize it yourself. It was a small thing, no harm was done and doubtless the broad learned her lesson, but once we land I need you focused on what is happening before you, not what happened behind you. Do not let the thought of bigoted old fools distract you; do not compare yourself to your brother and do anything foolhardy as a result. I hired you, not him."

The old man's gaze shifted back to Nikki. "Have you come to a decision concerning my offer yet?" he asked. "You still have time to decide, if you haven't; it can wait until after the mission is complete, provided you perform adequately." He looked around again, and shrugged. "Beyond all that I was only checking, and you're both still alive so I'll leave you alone for now." He turned and walked out, closing the door behind him.

He went across the ship, pausing only to check on the hyperdrive, and knocked at the men's dorm. "It's Grendelev," he said through the door, again waiting for permission to enter. The Shadow Ninja had not slept in here, but in the cockpit, since that was the best place to be in case of an emergency and he had to be ready.

If people had mostly been acting on their own and remaining withdrawn from the rest, then Kivesh was the extreme. He was barely seen and he barely spoke the dark hunter made no attempt to approach anyone during this slow and annoying days the prelude for the main event. Kivesh if seen was always seen wearing his armor, this time no part of his flesh was exposed he always wore his black battle armor and the black helm he used with the painted skull, the red orbs always active signaling the quiet presense of the Ubese hunter.

Kivesh had not taken residence on the male dorms, instead he used the cargo hold as his quarter he had also asked for permission to tweak the air filter in that room making the oxigen more tolerable and breatheble to him albeit dirtier, so he could sleep and not choke to death or developed pulmunary cancer later in life, having been raised in a dead world, dirty and broken world had made Kivesh lungs peculiar so he was forced to rely on special masks to filter the proper oxigen requiered by his body.

Kivesh rutine was to wake after every six hours of sleep, go fetch something to eat and return to his cave, train and play around with the tools that Grendelev had given him and it was no surprise after a two days that the Ubese was familiar with them enough that he could flawlessly use them, the Ubese had also gotten the hang of the advance slicing equipment and was now confident that if he could get close to a security terminal or the command center of the bank he would have be able to disable most if not some of the security meassures of the bank. The only person whom Kivesh have had some contact had been the mandalorian female human Arwyn, they had sparred a couple of times. In terms of hand to hand combat Kivesh always loosed she was good with her fist and body and using it as a weapon, but in melee Kivesh never lost he was great with melee. But regardless of how their sparring matches Kivesh barely traded words or advice with her.

Today Kivesh was scavenging for food, he was hungry so he suited up and left his "cave" he managed to find some Caff and something he wasnt quiet sure what humans call it but it was a bolw of something, it smelled nice enough so he grabbed it with the caff and was returning to the cargo hold, but on the way he noticed Grendelev was knocking on the males dorm, behind his intimidating helm Kivesh raised his eyebrow and approached Grendelev from behind, the hunter was quiet as a ghost and only stoped a couple of feets away from Grendelev, nodding only once to greet his boss. The Ubese waited to hear what he had to say.

After getting settled in, Erikis had gotten used to the quiet of the male section of the ship. Grendelev, the Ubese Kivesh, and Erikis were the only males; and of the three beds in the room, only Erikis slept and worked there. Work meaning both of his weapons, both the rifle and pistol, laid out on a table. He'd spent most of the time he was on the ship taking apart and reassembling what he could of the weapons. In general, he was familiarizing himself with them, though he wish he could've gotten more practice using them.

Erikis knew there was some training sessions that had been happening in the hanger bay. As much as Erikis thought it would be a good idea to practice his unarmed combat, and get some exercise, he figured learning his weapons would be a better choice for his skills. Though that might've been a weak excuse. Erikis wasn't much of a social person, and he was trying to avoid any awkward situations with the other crew members. Going so far as to make sure no one was in the cafeteria when he went to get some food. He thought about it a moment, and how silly it seemed. He sighed and decided to go to one of those training sessions later that day, if only to get to know the crew that was there.

However, Erikis had set aside the task of maintaining his weapons, and when he did, he was reminded how quiet the room was. After a moment of expecting to hear some noise he went to his bed. He knelt down and pulled out his belongings, and after searching through them, he found his personal datapad. He took a seat on the bed and was typing away for a few moments, before he heard the knock. This was strange to Erikis, as he was unused to the knocking. Partly because of the silence, but mostly as long as he could remember in his military career, the person in charge usually didn't knock. Erikis was, of course, appropriate. He set the datapad aside and stood. "Come in." He said as he tried to resist the urge to salute.

"Going for a bowl of soup, Kivesh?" Konstantin remarked as the Ubese stalked up behind him. "You can't sneak up on me, not with a bowl of soup and a mug of caff in hand." He regarded Kivesh over his shoulder, the blue cyber-eye glimmering in the dimness of the hall. "I saw you sparring with Arwyn before; she's good in a fist fight, but you're by far the better fencer. Hopefully you'll make good use of those stun rods I gave you."

The door to the dorm opened, and Konstantin slipped inside. "Stand down, man," he told Erikis, "I don't demand formality aboard ship." Like before he did not lean against the wall or make any move; he merely stood a few feet inside the room, observing things before him. He saw the soldier's guns laid out on the table, in varying states of assembly. "The others have been practicing their skills, you should join them before we land at Muunilinst," he remarked. "Even Kivesh has sparred a few times," and he jerked a thumb at the armored Ubese.

"You haven't been very sociable either," he went on. "That could be a problem later in your career, you know; the only people who get anywhere in the military are the ones who can suck up, make themselves stand out and be remembered. You could be the most talented and skilled warrior in the galaxy, but they'll ignore you every time if you can't advertise yourself."

He was about to go on when something alerted him; he stopped and looked about sharply, wondering what had happened. It took him a split second to realize the hyperdrive had skipped a tick; he'd been subconsciously counting the ticks in the machine, and now it had missed one. "Pardon me," he said distractedly, turning to go past Kivesh and head back for the hyperdrive room. If the apparatus failed now, they'd never get anywhere...

Kivesh ignored his boss remarked about sneaking behind him and simply stood silent no more than a meter away from the elderly agent and the leader of this suicide mission which made the Ubese hunter spine and every cell in his body shiver in excitement and anticipation, this was the kind of things that made Kivesh be glad that he was alive otherwise he might not enjoy this rare opportunity.

For now the Ubese noticed something he had missed previously as surprising as that sounded. The Ubese saw that Grendelev was less "human" that it meet the eye, through his helm and his keen large blue eyes he saw that the veteran human eyes where synthetic, which made Kivesh wonder how many more fake parts Grendelev had been implanted with.

The hunter walked behind Grendelev once the male's dorm opened and he noticed that the human Erikis had been toying around with his weaponry. Then Grendelev peep in a remark about Kivesh being friendly which made the Ubese grit his teeth behind the skull painted helm, no doubt Grendelev and perhaps some of the others had gotten the notion of being somewhat familiar with the dark hunter, that notion made Kivesh sulk quietly in his mind they had no reason to be so casual with him. The only people who could be casual with the hunter was his sister and the now gone members of the clan Geeve which had given birth to Kivesh.

The Ubese tired of this event turned around and went back to his cave, he did noticed something had startle Grendelev, what could it have been? Curiosity killed the cat, and Kivesh at the moment was a feline, he took another turn instead of following Grendelev. The Ubese set his things aside and left them at the floor. He quickly regain the trail on Grendelev and followed him quietly even more so than regular... what had happened?

"You sound put out, and let me guess why," Grendelev said, his voice lightening somewhat. "An old woman gave you insult in the hallway at the hotel, and you put her in her place despite her husband's protestations, am I right?" He held up a hand to forestall any outcry. "A janitor saw everything, and the desk clerk relayed the situation to me, knowing that you were in my party," he explained. "I spread some credits around to make sure the story didn't go any farther; we don't need people remembering us, at any stage of this venture.

"I do not disapprove, and I doubt my disapproval would mean much to you in any case, but it's clear to me the situation is still on your mind, even if you don't realize it yourself. It was a small thing, no harm was done and doubtless the broad learned her lesson, but once we land I need you focused on what is happening before you, not what happened behind you. Do not let the thought of bigoted old fools distract you; do not compare yourself to your brother and do anything foolhardy as a result. I hired you, not him." Then Grendelev turned to Nikki to address her. A moment after that, he was gone, leaving Nikki and Arwyn to themselves once again.

Arwyn appreciated his kindness and sighed as she leaned back against the head of the bed. Though she really did wish, he'd stop referring to her brother the way he did. She knew that he had hired her and not her brother but, she did have to admit that she might be in competition with Cirith subconsciously. Her face scrunched up in irritation as she continued to think on thee matter. Somehow within moments, Grendelev had been able to pick up on something that she herself hadn't even been aware of. That irritated her more than anything.
The thought that she was apparently so easy to read troubled her. Her very survival depended on her ability to suprise people in many ways. She looked to Nikki for a moment, wondering if perhaps she felt like talking. Arwyn shook her head, this was no time for gossip or "girl time", she had a mission coming up that would require her total attention to the tasks given to her. She moved the disturbing notions to the back of her mind as she got off the bed and stood up. She wanted to get in a few more hours of unarmed practice before they set down. Then she looked to Nikki again and shrugged "Hey Nikki, want to join me in the cargo bay for some unarmed sparring?"