'Hey exImp!'
Kara hears Aniera, but she doesn't care. All she wants now is solitude, and her bunk is the closest thing to it she can find right now.
Crouched miserably on the floor, Djebelle just shrugs at Aneira's questions. "Dunno." She wipes her sleeve across her face again.
A pause while she does her best to gather her thoughts and pull herself together. "Finding hilts shouldn't be a problem - must be a few out there, no crystals 'course. Pose as a Hutt broker, client looking for a couple exotic antiques for his wall..." She sniffs. Mention of the Hutts carries nothing but bad memories. "Or you could ask your friends in the Alliance, I s'pose. Must be someone has a relic from a friend or relative who was lost in the purges."
She gives Aneira a hard look through her red-rimmed eyes. "Depends how much you need to pretend you're not with the Rebs any more, amirite?"
Aneira stares back unabashed
No, not really Miss Torr
She turns to face slightly away
There's a saying in the intelligence services Miss Torr, not just Allaince, but CorSec, Black Sun's agents, even the Empire's Intelligence corps. I'm sure you'll understand it, the gist runs 'you're either in, or you're flatlined'...
She sighs, rubbing her temples
Aside from the usual scuttlebutt, I did hear mention of someone who fought at Yavin who carries a lightsaber, but there's no intel on that person's whereabouts, they're being kept 'out of the loop' as it were.
She shrugs
I can send a message, but it's like firing a proton torpedo in to an asteroid field and hoping to hit one specific rock, not something that should be relied on.
Tapping one finger on her arms she continues
Sending out feelers in to the shadow markets runs the same risk as announcing we have crystals, there are many ears listening and most are unfriendly. So that leaves us with blind luck stumbling upon something, trying to figure it out ourselves or the continued interest of the party that sent the co-ordinates in the first place
She stares back at Djebelle
How are you at building electrical circuits, shaping housing and aligning oddly shaped crystals?
she asks with a wry smile on her face.
Aristi's ears flatten and his fur frizzes as he considers Aneira's words about the terrible things that might happen if someone were to try to sell one of those lightsaber crystals. "Okay, message received! Bad things happen to those who have one of those crystals. You sure you want to keep it?"
His fur settles as he turns back to Juviest, and Aristi leans back in the seat. "Coordinates are set for Bespin and we're in hyperspace at the moment, so we've got time until the controls need checked again."
The Bothan's quiet for a moment, listening to Djebelle and Aneira discuss making lightsabers. Quietly, he throws out, "What about a museum? If Jedi really did exist, but the Empire wiped them out, wouldn't they have a museum exhibit or something about it? I mean, the Emperor likes celebrating his triumphs. Maybe they've got a couple we could steal on Imperial Center or somewhere."
Nodding at Aristi, Aneira sighs
We should keep going for now, about our business as usual, so Bespin is a good target, being our next available opportunity for earning some creds.
She purses her lips as Ariti suggests the museum
Now that's not a silly idea, security for such places is usually high on show, low on glow... the only issue is location. Also, despite the security being lax, I wouldn't put it past there being a tracker on jedi artifacts, just in case and all that
She sits down and drags her tablet on to her lap
M'gonna do some database dredging and see if I can find anything that'll help us, on either front
"Hah! Robbin' a museum. That's on ma bucket list!", chuckles Juviest. "Tell ya what, though, kids.", he says, holding out his massively oversized blaster. "I know a thing or two 'bout those mechanical things you two mentioned. I'd even be willin' to put that into a blaster, see how it handles the power.", he chuckles.
"Jus... Not now.", he says, leaning on Aristi. "Hey, kid... D'ya mind helpin' me to my bunk? No need to tuck me in...", he says, as his bandage starts bleeding again.
"Yeah, it's probably a silly idea raiding a museum. Don't worry, something will turn up. Bound to be something lost out there on the reaches of the Outer Rim."
Aristi helps the veteran Sullustan to his bunk before heading back to the cockpit.
Thrask just turns his head back and forth between all the others. This whole talk was honestly starting to go way over his head and he began to slump a bit more and more as it looked like any kind of fun was way out of the picture. He shook his head, if this weapon, this sword was that interesting surely there would be some knowledgeable tinkerer somewhere. Or a bounty hunter with one on their belt.
After what seemed like forever, the trandoshan's attention span wavered and he shuffled off to his section of the cargo bay he set up as a sort of gym. He still needed to talk to someone about setting a dial on the repulsor sled so that it could be turned into a proper bench press and squat machine.
Note: This particular trandoshan's attention span is about five minutes when it comes to stuff he doesn't understand.
Still ready.
;)
Kara wakes the next morning her normal, cheery self. She downs a half-pot of java before acknowledging anyone. While she's trying to be human Chiss again, she peruses her datapad for some old intel on weapons dealers on Bespin.
After an hour or so, she thinks she might have something.
Aristi offers to help with locating arms dealers - "I'll see if I can use the ship's computer to access the HoloNet. I have some business contacts in the Greater Javin, they might be able to furnish us with some names or even introductions."
Thrask moves to the cargo bay and starts fussing with the various pieces of gear attempting to look for something. He finds the old repulsor sled and wheels it to a open spot before getting below it and giving it a few test lifts.
He shakes his head and goes off to find two empty crates and puts them on the sled and tests again. He seems aggravated as he stops off out of the cargo bay. He goes from room to room, poking his big ugly head in before he finally spots the Sullustan. "You, come here" he says without actually waiting to see if he will follow.
He makes his way back to the repulsor sled, something most anyone could easily track giving the man's lumbering way of walking about the ship. He stares at it angrily for a bit and waits till the Sullustan shows.
Juviest pulls up his flask, and shrugs. "Hope you don't need me to get anything off of a tall shelf, Thrask.", he jests, standing up from his bed.
"You need something?", he asks, looking at the Trandoshan's hidey spot. "I'm hoping it's not with my skills as interior decorator, that is."
Thrask snorts and points at the repulsor sled "Think you can fix an adjustment knob on that thing. I'd rather try to not fill the place with weights and the like when cargo works fine given that you can control the weight. All this standing about in a ship is giving me an itch and I don't need to try and scratch it in an enclosed space if you catch my drift..." he said trying to give himself the appropriate vent to keep his blood's desires at bay.
Your search for the arms dealer, Dralin Starwind, comes up with many different and sometimes opposing pieces of information but it seems he is often on Bespin and frequents cloud city. It seems he is a major player in a trading consortium called the Steel Sky Guild. The SSG deals in all sorts of trading goods mostly legal but it appears some not so much.
'...hmmm, Starwind...don't know him, but the SSG? now those guys I know...'
"I think I have something." Kara sips at a mug of hot java. "The Steel Sky Guild. Some mercantile-types who want everyone to think they deal in legal goods only. We ran an op against one of their warehouses...running spice that was used to fund rebel activity. They may be a good place to start."
"Sounds like a good lead. Do we have a strategy for how we want to approach this? Are we just sounding him out? Are we using our own funds to purchase weapons? Sounded like the rebels on Hoth were willing to pay us for whatever we can acquire. What funds then do we have to work with?"
Aristi scratches his chin for a few moments, considering. "What's the Imperial presence on Cloud City? Might they have an arms dump that we could raid? We could supplement whatever we could purchase from Starwind."
Djebelle has been keeping a very low profile on board since the... argument. Wrapped in her cloak, she sits with her back to a wall, knees drawn up around her chest, silently listening to the others.
"I know Dralin - a bit. Worked on a - a project a while back. Went OK, but he might not remember me. I know some places he hangs out; or used to. My info's a bit out of date. But I can probably find him again, without too much trouble." Her voice is croaky from lack of use - this is literally the first time she's spoken in days.
"And Cloud City's pretty independent, we should be able to avoid Imperial entanglements. 'S a nice place." Sinking back inside the hood of her cloak, she lapses back into silence.
Kara looks at Aristi likes he's suddenly grown a second head. "Raid an Imperial arms cache?"
After several days in hyperspace you emerge near the planet of Bespin. A short flight later and you are parked on one of the landing pads that dot he surface of the giant floating city. The dock master and his crew meet you in an attempt to sell you fuel and supplies.
Aristi looks back at Kara, shrugs. "What? What'd I say?"
The Bothan sets the ship down with Juviest's help. "We might want to refuel now, while we can." He looks over at Djebelle. "If you know this Dralin, looks like you're up. Kara sounds like she has some knowledge of this Steel Sky Guild, and I might have some old business contacts in the area. Anyone want to stay with the ship?" He watches Djebelle appraisingly - she'd been very quiet on the journey here. Guess that crystal thing gave her a lot to think about. Come to think of it, the whole crew had kept pretty quiet. Though he thought he could still hear Thrask thrashing the old repulsor sled.