An Awkward Meeting

[Ashi]

Egill sighed. He worked best alone, but at least he recognized the need for an organized team on this mission. Infiltrating the hierarchy of high-profile pirate organizations wasn't something you could do without some kind of a rep. Republic Intelligence could probably build the kind of reputation he would need, but there was always the risk of having a source within the Republic's bureaucracy or an untrustworthy contact, so it was onto the hard way.

He looked back at his work, nine profiles sat on his desk of various agents and soldiers who might work particularly well for his assignment. His first choice, for certain, was a man known as the "Shadow Ninja", a rather odd name, to be sure, but his record and psych profile were almost perfect for this kind of assignment. His other choices were far from as clear. A few people could provide both piloting and mechanical work, which would help in a team as small as his, but it was a hard choice.

He finally decided on Talia Bliss, by merrit and Nalan Arruna as a pilot. Unfortunately, if he needed reinforcement in the field, it would be far, far more difficult than just stopping off at the local Republic Military base. So he would have to be damned careful to ensure that his people survived in good health.

- - - - - - - -

He walked into the briefing room where his team was waiting. "Alright folks, listen up. My name's Gunnar Sindrulfr and this is my op. First and foremost, this is going to be a long-term, deep-cover mission. If you're uncomfortable with or unable to handle that, leave now and I'll get you back to where we pulled you from as soon as we're finished here.

He waited a minute to give everybody a chance to mull it over and make a decision.

"Alright then. Let's get started." He pushed a button and the holoprojector set in the middle of the room flashed on. As you know, The republic has pulled a fairly substantial number of ships away from the planetary militias to help counter the sith threat. In turn, this has led it a rise of pirate activity. Our goal is to infiltrate several large pirate organizations, starting with a group harassing Corellian traders named the Jordassi Regulars, and coordinate with the republic navy to destroy as much of their military prowess as possible."

He glanced up at the holo image of the Corellian sector. "Our most recent intelligence suggests that the Regulars are based out of the Nubus system, so we're headed to Nubia [wookiee link]." The Nubus solar system flashed red. "As you can see, the Nubus system is in a convenient location that allows easy access to both the Corellian Run, and the Corellian Trade Spine. We may be called on to assault civilian targets, so non-lethal force will be absolutely essential. If we can help it, I don't want any civilian casualties."

"Our cover for this op is as a small mercenary unit. We don't have a name as of this moment, so if you have any creative ideas I'm happy to hear them when we finish. We'll be flying in the Ullrulfr [SWU link], a heavily modified Falcon scout." He pushed another button on the holoprojector's control panel. The image changed to reveal a picture of the Ullrulfr. Egill then nodded towards Nalan, "She's a quiet with a lot of power, but she's a great deal different from what you've been flying. You'll have some time to get to know how she handles on the way, but you'll have to fly her like you've been her pilot for years. Make good use of the time."

He paused for a minute. "Any questions or comments?"

[Arruna]

Right in the beginning they were told to leave, what a hospitality, at least they got a fine roof above, so the rain and cold did not disturbed her. But why was there a good member of the Navy? Well, it was a long story, briefly she had a little misunderstanding with the leadership. Not like it was special, she had problem with everything that lived and breathed. Being on vacation was a good excuse for her new interest, a little extra income could come handy anytime, plus who said she got to play the role of good girl. So she figured a fresh air couldn't hurt and she accepted a request from... well this fellow. Who was he? Oh, yeah, a human, of course, the usual again. There was another guy, naturally a hairy-headed human, again. Finally, another woman, bravo! But she was a human too, oh... what was wrong there with everyone? Nalan couldn't find out wherever she went this species always was around when the trouble appeared. Knowing herself it wasn't surprising that she herself was there too.

Now, what we got there? An unofficial invitation to the Outer Rim, sounded fun, since that wasn't a Military mission there wasn't any rule that said she had to avoid the drink, hurray! She only liked to drink when she was flying. Therefore, Nalan already let herself open a battle or two before arriving, never mind, so far no one mentioned any rule. Hm... and they even paid for this? Cool. But why did she brought her pet, around her neck. Sheela was in her usual mood, lazy and motionless. No wander the snake remained unnoticed, the lekku gave perfect cover. What Chadorhi - as we knew this was Nalan artist name - found out was they were starting to make some mess somewhere to draw the attention of pirate organization. Well it wasn't her favorite to dirt her hand, but fortunately she was more greedy than cleanliness maniac. First, she was silent, but when Egill nodded toward her and he was praising the vessel, Nalan felt she should answer.

"Double speed and double size, she'z basically the same what I use, piece of care to fly her. And yes I have a puny question, when will we depart?"

Okay, perhaps it was just Talia who first had to force herself to remain calm, but this mission as every gave her the nerve. Later usually it was much easier, like being nervous before performance. She did everything to make sure the others couldn't see it. Though it was obvious when the time came she will do her very best. A few machine won't messing her around. In the army she learned how to take control of her feelings, but it did not changed the fact, she was still human. Talking about that, the look of the only non-human female was weird. Seemingly only the most freaky people gathered here, actually, perhaps Talia was on the top, since officially she was dead. Well, no one would do better than that. The chief finished, good, it was time for some conundrum, but the Blue One was faster. Then it was Talia's turn.

"Sir, I need to know where I can find my equipment and whether if it was ready or otherwise?"

[Karl the Unfettered]

The man known as the Shadow Ninja had come into the room with a scowl, irritated at being taken away from his family because some loner freak of a spy needed a team and he needed one now. Usually it was him making demands like that, and acting all abrasive like he was in charge or something. He wanted to laugh, but that would be bad form; this wasn't his briefing, after all. Instead he straightened his gloves and cracked his neck, sitting down and waiting for the speeches to start.

He could take some comfort in knowing that whatever was in that profile on the table, most of it was probably false. Less than half a dozen people in the Republic knew he was actually Konstantin Faraday, and this man wasn't one of them; hell, not many more than that knew the Shadow Ninja even existed, and frankly he liked it that way. Kept the blue milk runs out of the way, among other things.

The presentation wasn't anything he'd not heard before, and the mission seemed easy enough on the surface; infiltrate a pirate group, build up a rep and destroy them from within. No civilian casualties was obvious, and if he had anything to do with it there wouldn't be any casualties, period. That was how he worked, and hopefully this "Gunny" had enough sense to realize that.

Then it was question time, and the old man cleared his throat. "How do you expect an organized pirate armada will accept the services of a four-man mercenary group, one of whom is a Twi'lek snake dancer who drinks too much in her spare time? Will we be expected to arm ourselves or are you providing kits and ordnance for the mission? Who will our liaison with the Navy be when coordinating naval strikes, and how are we supposed to make contact?" His manner was similar to Egill's; brusque, direct and to the point.

[Ashi]

Egill half-smiled at the pilot's usual cockiness. Nobody could say that until they'd flown her, but he'd let Nalan find that out on her own. "We'll be leaving at 1900. That gives you..." he paused to check the chronometer at the back of the room, "Eleven hours to get prepared."

He then paused, listening to the next question in line. "It's in the engineering bay on the Ullrulfr. You'll find it stowed and ready to go, but it's mostly the standard fare. If you've got anything special or custom built, you'll have to bring it with you."

He paused once more, listening to the words of his soon-to-be second in command. "First off, everybody in this group has their quirks. You're here because you're the best. Please try to accept that, despite what differences we have.

"Secondly, I have a small armory of easy-to-conceal weaponry on the Ullrulfr, as well as several suits of Sorusuub's MK VII armor [SWU link]. For your personal tastes, however, you are more than welcome to bring your own weapons and armor along. For the rest of your kits, I've got just about everything you'll need for the duration, and a few thousand credits if you want or need something different.

"Third, we will be liaising with Marcus Cole. He's the Commodore leading up the third fleet's eighth flotilla, which has been specifically assigned to us for the duration. A secure hypercomm is currently being installed on the Ullrulfr, and we'll be leaving shortly after they test it. As long as we're not near or within their base, we should be able to contact him without any concerns. If we are within their base, we'll just have to hope the encryption holds up and that we can sabotage their internal sensors so they won't be able to detect it.

"And by the way, folks, this is my second in command. If he says something, listen to him. He's got enough experience, just from what I was able to get from his record, to do this solo. With that in mind, let's get to the most important of the questions you asked: Why would they work with us? The simple answer is, we're the best. Talia over there is on record for disabling, repairing, and reinstalling a mark 8 fusion reactor in 14 hours, one of the most complicated pieces of machinery I've ever looked at. Nalan there, despite her extra curricular activities, could fly circles around you, me, and most of the republic fleet. And I don't have to tell you your own record. As for myself, well, I've never found someone quite as good at blending in."

Egill pushed a hidden button on his belt, and his appearance changed, ever so slightly, into the appearance of a republic warrant officer, even the insignia on his arm and collars altered as the modified stealth system did it's work. His mannerisms also changed abruptly, "It's not about our qualifications," his body language and voice, previously commanding the room, were suddenly meek and quiet. His voice was a quarter octave lower and far less imposing, the perfect complement to the rank insignia on his arm. "It's just a matter of proving it to them."

He pushed the button again and immediately returned to his normal mannerisms. "Any further questions?

[Arruna]

And look at that, not time was wasted as Konstantin expressed his opinion in a quite nice question. It was weird at first from a stranger, but she figured pretty soon that he knew more about her than she about him. A little unpleasant was that moment, judging her habits so unexpectedly, but this way she got some idea what an influential person he might be, if he wasn't then, at least he surely belonged to mysterious sect that was able to access to military data. Now, she was rather careful to avoid such manner and bad impression, though she was about to gladly answer that question of his in her own way. However, before that it was told, Mr Ninja was the second in command and it quickly changed the tone of what she wanted to say. Pointless to deny, he was luckier than he was aware of that, but Nalan didn't mind in the end, after all, she knew very well that it was easier to got along in peace. So, she tried to be nice.

"As I see you already know me, I hope you are more pleased with my military data than with my personal life, Zir. May you tell us a few words about yourself? How we can call you, for instanze..."

For a tense moment it seemed she lost eye contact with him to check out Egill's face. Right after that she felt easy, because probably both of them learned by now that she had finished the academy with a good result and piloting was more to her than just a job. Meanwhile, it came to Talia's attention that their little team was set up and ready to go. She was excited of new challenges, enthusiastically her look found her new comrades who discussed their personal details, but it wasn't matter for her. She had faith in her group, the only thing that pissed her a little was the remaining eleven hours. What should she do? Sitting around and starring one another? No thanks! Then she heard something and a slight smile appeared on her face.

"Is that changing device implanted into the Sorusuub's MK VII? When can we try up one?"

"I pick a pink one"

"You cannot be serious?!"

They looked each other obviously that was their first official meeting in person when they tasted a little the other one's nature. To be honest, Chadorhi had never met a female mechanic, who she planed to be after the Academy. She had never really pictured herself being one, it was just an idea, but after she officially could called herself a pilot she lost her interest. And now there she was, Talia, a lost dream, but Nalan didn't know whether it was a desired occupation or not. Perhaps if she got to knew her better then Nalan could make up her mind about starting a new course. As for Talia, she was a pro. She prefered to do thing at first in a professional before she would found out anything about her comrades

"Oh yeah, Italia, very scar... seriouz." Toward Egill "Yes, Zir. I like to take a look at that famouz Ullrulfr."

[Karl the Unfettered]

Konstantin scowled at Arruna's attempts to be cute, and the mechanic's off-hand retorts, but he refrained from calling them out on it for the moment. "You have no reason to know who I am, Miss Arruna," he said neutrally. "Others with a higher pay grade," and he nodded at Egill, "know me better as the Shadow Ninja, a moniker I did not earn easily. However, if it pleases you, you can call me Grendelev."

Egill was speaking again, and he listened carefully to his words. He nodded approvingly at the arrangements; it was how he would have done it, had this been his op. He noted their qualifications privately, but knew he would have to observe for himself what they were capable of; knowing a person's record and rap sheet was not the same as actually knowing a person, after all, though it always paid to be careful in any event.

Then Egill did his trick with the clothes and the speech, and Konstantin nodded again. "That's an interesting trick," he said levelly, "who does your tailoring? I want their names." It might take the others a second or two to realize "Grendelev" had just made a joke, if they realized it at all; his tone and facial expression had not changed one bit.

Konstantin stood up, pulling his black long coat about himself as he did so. "Everything seems to be in order, then," he declared, "so if you'll excuse me I have to make some arrangements of my own. Equipment and the like. Permission to leave, sir?" This last question was directed at Egill, obviously. With this new angle, the other two might now notice that the old man's left eye was actually a prosthetic, a cybernetic implant that glowed a faint blue, indicating its higher functions were on standby.

[Ashi]

Egill hid his smile behind a stoic, professional mask, at the petty bickering and comments made by the team as they were getting to know each other. Egill knew well the power of names, so he wasn't drawn into the quiet gimmick of the experienced spy, for that matter, he hadn't been particularly honest about his own name, and he still had no reason to come clean about it.

"No Talia, it's not. But you can experiment with the armor as much as you please."

His look became slightly patronizing as the two women squabbled, before the next comment was directed his way and it straightened out. "You can find it in hangar bay 11425 at the local spaceport. I'll be heading there myself as soon as the breifing is in order."

His reaction to Konstantin's joke, however, was far from joking. "His name is Egill Porgnyr. Perhaps I'll introduce you one day." He nodded, contentedly as Konstantin made his declarations, before adding: "Granted. But I'm not really much on formalities, so you can drop the act." He did, however, notice the implant flare up, tho he made no comment about it. The implant's enhanced sensors would find him more-or-less precisely as he appeared to be, a man dressed in a generic republic military jumpsuit with no markings of any kind. There was one difference, however, from the image he projected, his hair. Rather than being straight black, his hair appeared to be streaked with brown. I would have expected no less, he thought to himself, and certainly would have respected him less if he hadn't checked.

"Actually, on that note, we might as well dismiss the meeting." He directed his voice towards the two who were still seated. "You're dismissed, ladies. Just be sure to be at landing pad 11425 at 1900." He picked up his datapad and pulled his holocube from the projector, before heading to the Ullrulfr.

[Arruna]

Goodie, their little company seemed doing fine so far, she hoped it was going to continue this way. The guys were fine and Chadorhi also, well more-or-less. It was fairly early for judging anybody about his or her character, but this combination of persons was a bit odd. Previously she had deal with similar crew that was bigger, however, in a small squad they got more time to each individual to analyze and learn about, and she couldn't help it, but she started to form her opinion about them before she expected. Permission given, what for? Oh yeah, for experimenting the armor, that was great.

"Okay, understood."

Truth was that, she had no idea what to thought of that, but perhaps once she would had fancy to try out a blaster pistol on an armor then... Much better. With a fair appellation of Konstantin or name of Konstantin the whole world seemed more charming, now she only had to find out how to gild it and turned it into something sweeter. 'Italia' was fine, but this Grendelev... perhaps Gren, Grand, Delevy, Grendel hm... wasn't that familiar from somewhere? Uhh, right. Maybe the 'Grandie' was the real, like the dog's name, it was also a bit close to 'Granny', but since papa Konstantin was about to reached his sixties, it fitted him even better. A mile-wide-smile was summoned on her pretty face right after Konstantin finished his introduction.

"Oh, it pleasez me very much, you can bet on it, Gren... khm... Zir."

Then something gloomy and quaint came that Chadorhi couldn't quite cauth, it was perhaps a wonderfully wonderful disturbance in syllabication or an old infrequent metaphor. It was there so suddenly and it got her unprepared, so she missed that moment so easily as if it had never been there. Something left the lips of Konstantin, but her level of understanding couldn't handle the joke and it almost caused complete destruction of the structure of her little mind. Luckily, she was still pretty amused with Grendelev's new name, so she missed the moment.

"Hah... wha?"

Talia almost asked for the tailor's contact number, just in case if they were so kind to make her a new suit. But instead of continuing the joking she smiled to herself silently. This Mr Grendelev demand to leave at once to pack his things to trip, that gave her the idea to do the same thing elsewhere and Egill closed the briefing, they were ready to go. Since she had plenty of time to check out the new suit later she went away after she nodded. She closed to Grendelev before she went on.

"What sorts of unusual difficulties do you expect on this mission?"

Chadorhi turned to Egill.

"Zen I come with you, that bird seems promise-eeng. I guess the best zing to do is to check out the earlier navigation records at first and later to do a little test flying before we depart."

[Karl the Unfettered]

Konstantin wasted no time slipping out of the room, squeezing the bridge of his nose as he did so; patient he may have been, some people were just too much. And this Officer Arruna was, at first impression, rather too much. He could not see them getting along well at all during this mission, and realized he had to make the best of it or else they were dead in the water before they left the docks. Never a good thing, for anyone.

But the mechanic came up behind him then, before he could properly get away, asking a fairly typical question that, for some reason, few people ever thought to ask. "Oh, nothing unusual," the old spy began, looking down at the mechanic. "I've done this sort of thing a time or two before and, well... let's just say things can go wrong very fast, and if you're not on your toes you won't be able to fix things."

He turned and kept walking, gesturing for Talia to follow him. "Have you any idea what to expect, here?" he asked politely. "I'll warn you, these are a real group of bastards, even for pirates; if they find us out it will not go well." His brow furrowed and he went silent, as if deep in thought about some private image in his mind. "It won't go well at all."

[Ashi]

Egill looked at Arruna absent-mindedly, "Alright then." He started walking towards his ship. After a minute he spoke up: "It will be interesting to see what Mr. Shadow Ninja comes up with during his research, don't you think?" He kept walking, his mind mostly on the details of the mission ahead.

His biggest concerns at the moment would be any crew problems that developed and getting the group out alive. With Arruna being as quirky as she was, any kind of cover for her was going to he hard to pull off, so either she was going to be stuck on the ship, or he would have to have a long conversation with Konstantin to sort out something suitable, because he was starting to draw a blank.

Luckily, however, Arruna and Bliss would be sharing a stateroom, which reduced, albeit only slightly, any potential friction between Ninja and her. Judging from the meeting, that would be the worst of it. Like himself, Konstantin was a heavily disciplined man. Self-control was an absolute necessity in this trade, as being happy-go-lucky could, and usually did, get people killed. Perhaps mild insanity? Something which would let them justify her outlandish nature as both something that fit in perfectly and provided the perfect excuse for her comments to be mostly ignored.... His mind continued to drift along this paths while listening for Nalan's reply.

[Arruna]

As one could guess the promising mission had its risk, nevertheless, there was her first impression that just she gave to them wasn't exactly the most authoritative. On other days she usually had different mood and with that a another performance, but since there was still some time left Chadorhi had no reason to worry. With this manner one obviously could not finish a military academy, right? So let's just say sometimes she picked the easier option from the choice. On the other hand, It was pretty hard, actually, being youngest in the squad - not to mention the only alien -, others with the several years experience, but no matter how old men were there, inside all of them were equally childish. Lucky for them, most woman liked children. Companying Egill was the next step to find out whether he was the good old solder made of iron or he had other reasons to be admired.

"Indeed, but not only zat, he's whole figure have somesing exorbitant, in strange way, I mean. Like someone who is hiding. Where did you find zis Mr Grendelev?"

Without doubt Ninja was more than interesting, however, no one knew too much about people like him, some quitter agent with a creepy and mysterious past. It was a shame, that there was no one to publish his extreme biography one day. Sure it would be an exciting reading. But the rest of the crew was simpler. Talia, easy to got along with her, at least as it seemed. And Egill was the one with the answers and to be disturbed for every insignificance. Nice little group, she fitted in perfectly.

"Do you have a simulatour on board or I have to fly with vessel to test it before the departure, Zir? Perhaps I shouldn't question zat, but that man (Konstantin), is he reliable? I guess, he's ganna watch our back by giveeng the cover story..."

Keeping her eyes at the road they went, Talia was paying close attention to Mr. Ninja. During their walk his opinion was valued by her, she liked to ask simple questions, since the answers for those were the essence of everything. And who else could give better answer than an 'old fox' (experienced one) in the profession. He had his style, but that wasn't Talia's concern to criticize. They were not the same person and she accepted that.

"Yes, I know, what to expect, one mistake could cost all of us' lives. If we can call a life and death siltation 'usual', then it's better if all of us be on toes. It's really not my business, but do you work alone because you don't want to loss anyone?"

For a moment she turned toward him, took a peek at his face, then as if she tried to be ready to no getting any answer her attention was on the floor again. So she went on...

"So... some 'specail' arrangement you meant? What should we expect from that?"

[Ashi]

Despite his far more casual reactions to his environs, Egill knew full well what Konstantin was hiding: Himself. His identity, his history, his very essence, that was what he was hiding. Egill knew easily and without effort, for that was what he was hiding as well. Only their methodology was different, and even then there were similarities.

Egill looked at Nalan with one of his better unassuming and passive faces. "I'm not sure. Whatever it is, however, he is doing a pretty good job of telling you, in particular, to let it go." His tone was sincere, as if he honestly didn't know. "From what I've seen of his service record, pushing him too hard will pretty much mean the republic holds you in contempt and withdraws whatever honors, titles, positions, and so forth that you had. I doubt his secrets are worth loosing a life-time of work for." This wasn't a blatent lie, albeit it was fudging the truth a little.

Egill had worked with folks like Konstantin before, and what they didn't do blatently, they made up for in their political and military connections. He once saw a navy Commodore stripped of rank and dishonourably discharged for going against an agents orders, and Egill sincerely hoped Arruna would be smart enough to take the less-than-subtle hint. The last thing he needed now was for that kind of fight to go on, let alone on the first group mission he'd been assigned. Inwardly he sighed and prayed to whatever deity would listen that he was not given another assignment like this.

"To answer your question, no, there's no simulator. It's going to be cramped quarters as it is without adding more bulky equipment to her. You're welcome to head to the cockpit and spend some time going over the controls and where they're at, but more than that will have to wait until we actually leave." Egill stopped then and looked directly at Arruna. In a voice filled with a commanding tone, Egill said "He is more reliable than I am, more loyal to the Republic, and has more medals than he could fit on a dress uniform if he tried. The heavily doctored version of his service record I was given had a list of achievements that makes most of the vice admirals I know look like raw recruits, and the real version is undoubtedly better. Don't you dare underestimate his reliability."

Egills tone and posture relaxed again. "And yeah. He will help with the cover IDs. But I'm still going to be signing off on them, so I'll make sure you're not some high-class snob from Kuat." He continued walking in the silence that followed until they were actually in the docking bay. "There's the bird you'll be flying." He nodded at the Ulrullfr, "Think you can handle her?" He intentionally needled. "She's just a bit faster than those cargo haulers you're used to flying." he guestured, holding his thumb and index finger a centimeter apart in a comical manner.