Landing

[Ardenator]

Ardent gazed at the tanish ball through the viewport, frowning slighty. "Tatooine. Great."

Copler shrugged. "You asked for backwater. This is about as backwater as it gets." Tatooine had begun as a big-corporation mining settlement, but once the ore was found to be unusable, the companies had pulled out. That had been a couple centuries ago. Now the remaining straight businesses and their people were on their way out, and all that was left was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, full of mercs, pirates, smugglers, criminals, and various other fringers. It was also a big hunting planet, with Hunters from all over seeking Wraid and Krayt Dragon trophies. All-in-all, Kuundra did not approve of the place. But it was a small, overlooked planet; a place where the people wouldn't ask too many questions. They could get lost here.

And that's what they needed, especially after the circumstances of their leaving the Vengeance.

They hailed the planet, and after some wrangling acquired a landing pad. Ardent turned to the others once the Wraid was landed and powered down. "Allright, Rein and I will go out into the city to buy food and other supplies. We'll also check out the local scene, get a feel for things, and get some info on this place nad what's going on in the galaxy at large. From there, we can decided what to do next. The rest of you stay here at the landing pad; take care of the ship. I don't trust the people around here. We'll keep in contact."

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Minutes later, Ardent and Rein were walking out of the landing pad, dressed in full civilian attire and packing only small blaster pistols. He had never imagined things would come to this. But things had happened the way they had happened, and there was nothing he could do about it now. He would just have to cope.

Soon enough the duo was out in the street. Ardent paused, taking a moment to look around. Where to begin...

(sorry it horrible lol)

[Neology]

She was worried about Trent. Jedi or no, the man had notoriously bad luck and an uncanny knack for getting into trouble. Two days was a long time for him not to check in with her or Loralie. Frowning, René look up from her drink and searched the room for nothing in particular. It was early yet – what other patrons there were seemed to have little interest in bothering the young smuggler and thus earned little more then a dismissive glance. In the back of her mind she almost hoped someone would. Certainly, it’d provide a better distraction then the foul concoction that sat on the bar in front of her.

René cursed under her breath. Three days since they’d made planet fall and there’d been nothing but trouble. Routine maintenance and refueling became an indefinite ‘vacation’ until her last employer, a hutt crime lord of some standing, decided to let her ship leave. To explain that a late shipment to avoid notice was better then no shipment would have been utterly futile or even deadly depending on the hutt’s mood. Trent’s disappearance only added to the young smuggler’s frustrations, dampening her usually cheerful mood considerably.

Running a gloved hand through choppy blonde hair the woman turned her attentions toward the door. Her luck had to get better soon.

((Ugh, it sucks so much. D: ))

[projectsunfire]

((Come on you two have a little confidence ))

[Ardenator]

Ardent lifted his head... and winced from the light of two suns. Damned desert planet. They had been at this for hours. It was all the same. Find a merchant, wrangle for half an hour, purchase their goods, and return them to the ship. Back and forth, back and forth. Ardent had had enough.

They left the spaceport- for what seemed like the thousandth time -and returned to the city. A smile finally stuck upon Ardent's face he he glanced at his datacard. "That's it Rein. We've gotten all we need and more. Where to now?"

"The Cantina. I need a damned drink."

He chuckled at Rein's exclamation. It seemed he was enjoying the place as much as Ardent was. Nodding, Ardent struck out for the local Cantina. "Sounds good to me. We can probably get some information there as well. I don't like not knowing what's going on in the galaxy." Rein nodded in acknowledgment, and the duo fell into silence.

The Cantina was a good distance away, and Ardent had plenty of time to think during the little trek. What would they do now? What could they do?

They had had real lives once. They were Sith Elite Troopers, the finest in the Empire. They were doing something good; fighting for order and progress throughout the galaxy. It was so perfect. Maybe too perfect?

Then Sith Intelligence had stationed themselves on the Vengeance, and things had gone down from there. Slowly the just Empire they loved seemed to slip away. They were being ordered to do worse and worse things each day. Alien exterminations, killing civilians, unlawful searches and seizures... Ardent couldn't reconcile it with the old ideals any longer. What was happening to his Empire?

But they were soldiers, and they would obey. They continued on, hoping things would right themselves. Then O'hara showed up.

He had faced down Ardent, trying to scare and intimidate him. Ardent wouldn't back down, wouldn't bend the knee, and O'Hara had tried to kill him. The Sith Elite had went into battle mode, and reacting in self-defense accidentally killed the pompous Intelligence Officer. Suddenly he and his friends were in a lot of trouble. Intelligence didn't care about the circumstances, only that one of their own had been killed. They would have all been tortured and killed, then erased from the histories. Ardent would not have that, not for his friends. They had escaped, stealing an Intelligence ship and making for Tatooine.

And now they were here, scrambling about on this dusty, hot, scummy ball. Ardent detested everything about it. The smell, the heat, the desert landscape, and especially the people. They were low-life's of the worst caliber. Every time one's withdrawn eyes locked with Ardent's he felt sick.

But the place was safe, and they needed to lay low. He would have to deal with it. At least for now.

They rounded the last corner to see the Cantina standing before them. It was a dirty, rundown place, with some of the lights in the sign out front flickering out. It looked uninhabitable. And from the sounds and smells emanating from inside it didn't seem much different in there either. Taking a deep breath, Ardent stepped inside.

It wasn't. The Cantina was dark and smoky, filled with the smell of noxious brews. A small band played in one corner, with the bar opposite from the door.

Ardent caught the eyes of a striking young woman sitting at the bar. It seemed she had been watching the door. Was she expecting danger? Strange. She surely didn't seem like the type to become a fringer; young, beautiful, alert. But she surely dressed the part.

Ardent came to the bar, taking a seat next to the woman despite his logic. If she was trouble, he didn't want to be anywhere near her. But for some reason he found himself drawn to the person. Hopefully soon he would find out what that reason was.

Rein sat on his other side, and both men ordered a good old-fashioned muunilist mixed beverage. Turning, he made eye contact with the woman once more. He opened his mouth to speak, but was at a slight loss for words. He had never been very good at talking to beautiful women. He didn't enjoy being all over them like they were some form of object, but the attraction factor ensured that it would be difficult talking to them like he would one of his own gender.

Swallowing hard, he tried once more. I've already looked like a fool, might as well keep on. "Hello. I'm Ardent Kuundra." He gestured to Rein. "And this is my partner, Marka Rein. I noticed you were watching the door. Are you expecting someone?" He said, nodding towards the entrance.

[Neology]

René watched with vague interest as two men entered the cantina. Strange. They definitely didn’t look like locals, not enough dust and sand on their clothes, but then, she didn’t either and there was a spaceport relatively close by. One met her eyes, briefly, and she turned back to her drink and hoped they wouldn’t approach her. Distraction or not, she hadn’t really been looking to draw attention to herself.

She hid a curse with a swallow of her drink as one of the two took a stool next to her. The taste was entirely unpleasant; strong and bitter with an aftertaste that reminded her of the smell of gasoline. Even so, it would cause her head to swim in short order and Tatooine was lacking in more flavorful drink. Forcing her body language to settle back into easy nonchalance, she ignored the men until the closer of the two attempted conversation with her.

She turned to face the man, forcing a wonderfully false smile to grace her lips out of habit. As he spoke, she arched a single brow at his words. What a fool thing to ask… ”I’m René.” She offered a slight shrug in response to his question. ”Maybe? If I am nobody told me about it.”

She studied him while she spoke, sizing him up despite her false cheer. He didn’t look like a thug sent to collect, most of them weren’t smart enough to feign friendliness anyway, and lacked the smuggler’s own easy grace. She was curious, though it wasn’t difficult to spark such an interest in the young woman, and had her blaster if things did turn awry. The weapon was custom made, pearlesent gray with a printless finish, and the weight of it in its holster was some amount of comfort. There were two of them though, that could be a problem…

She gave another small shrug, turning back to the bar and leaning resting her elbows on it. She could start to feel the alcohol, a fuzziness building on the edge of her consciousness that she'd probably regret in the morning. Slowly, by degrees, she admitted defeat and took another drink. No point scaring him off if he so insisted on chatting with her. It wasn't that she didn't like the man personally, but the fact that this was a shady cantina on Tatooine. Being too trusting of strangers tended to be counter-productive to a long life.

”So, what brings you here, Mr. Kuundra?,” she gave a vague gesture to the rest of the room with a flick of her free hand. ”You aren’t from around here, I can tell that much.”

((OOC: There, I editted it. No more complaining. ))

[Ardenator]

(lol thanks )

Ardent hid a wince as the woman replied. She was smiling, and seemed cheery enough, but something in what she said made it seem to Ardent that this woman wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. Ouch... "Sorry for assuming, it seemed as if you were awaiting someone."

He sipped his drink, feeling the hot liquid slide down his throat towards his stomach. A warm feeling quickly spread itself throughout his body, and Ardent sighed. Now that was a damned good drink. Truthfully he was surprised that a backwater place like Tatooine would have a beverage of this repute.

He shrugged. He had seen stranger things.

His concentration on his drink was shattered when the woman spoke once again. For the second time in as many minutes he found himself surprised. Was she taking interest in him? He almost felt good about it. But that was not the question he wanted to be asked.

He glanced back at Rein, and the two locked eyes for a moment. No, there was no way he could tell the truth, not now. Not to a stranger. Looking back at the woman, Ardent finally spoke. "We're company agents working on the withdrawal of the last mining franchises here. There has been a lot of theft and extortion, among many other crimes, surrounding the final pull-out, and we're here to take care of that. We're looking for information on the situation. what do you know about this planet? And what brought you here? It doesn't take a detective to see that you're an offworlder as well."

Ardent smiled inwardly as he took another sip of his drink. It was the perfect cover. It totally hid their identities while still giving them basis to fish around the area. And, if he could pull it off, no one would suspect a thing.

He cocked an eyebrow at Rene, awaiting the woman's reply.