Forsaken Lands

[Vala'drella]

Vala watched what happened next and didn't make a move to get aboard her ship before her guest was ready to do as well. She wouldn't try to make a run for things but showing good faith wouldn't hurt in this weird situation.

Once they were good to go, she picked the case up and led the way aboard the boarding ramp, placing it in the cargo bay, before locking the hatch. Fidgeting in her pocket, she then produced a credstick and handed it to the armored man. "Here's your payment for the goods."

She then headed straight to the cockpit, and prepared for take off. Once the man joined her, she went through the final procedures and explained what was awaiting them.

"Once we get close enough to system, which will take a while as we're on the other end of the bloody galaxy, I'll send message for meet up. The Senator and her closer security always meet with me in a small depot at the edge of Chiss space." Her mistress didn't like others to know about her dirty little secrets.

[Hawkins Grime]

The woman handed the credstick to Grime who turned and flicked it at Orar in irritation.

"Laandur."

The Mandolorian turned on his heel quickly, gripping his rifle as if he'd almost take the chance but instead caught the stick just in time, glancing at it before looking back at Grime.

"Ret'urcye mhi A'den."

The armored man ignored the boy, his cloak catching the wind as he turned towards the ramp and followed the woman up the boarding ramp and into her ship. Orar watched the ramp go, still listening to e'Drain's string of curses after being muted to the boss.

"He knows where in the bloody darkest depths we're going, right?! The bloody Chiss Ascendancy."

"Udesii, besom."

"Stuff it, kid. You want to see something, just wait. An entire people just sitting in the Unknown Sector, waiting. For what? Who knows!? Who knows anything about the Chiss that they don't want us to know?"

"A'den brings his akaan wherever he goes. He has a haa'it."

"Whatever. Just get up here. You too, deathbot."

"EN ROUTE."

==========

Given the close quarters of the ship, Grime removed his helmet to reveal a face that appeared as if it had been sculpted from marble. The face was too perfect and it twitched occasionally across the span of his face. The off white of the skin hue had an almost blue tinge to it, as if there was no blood flow, simply because it was just the next layer of his exoskeleton provided by the witch's Mandolorian technicians and Averre's autistic mastery of machinery. The eyes were still organic, set deep in the face, lined in blackish blood. The ice blue eyes that regarded the woman as they entered the cockpit and she spoke. He stood, refusing to sit, unaware if she actually had other crew aboard the small cutter. The cockpit quickly became warmer with his presence there, not uncomfortably so just yet, but noticeable.

"She... Your mistress trusts you then? As much as anyone trusts... an animal they have leashed?"

[Vala'drella]

She kept going through the pre-flight even as he refused to sit. It was his decision, not hers. The engines roared as she was about to take off.

"She knows I always come back for my mother," Vala reluctantly admitted. "I'm the only one she has that can easily blend in outside of Chiss territory," she added with a wry smirk. "So yeah, she trusts me. The only one who knows my story for having another life sign aboard is bantha dren will be one of her bodyguards, my mother." The Rattataki and the near-human had some little secrets that could serve them in due time and now would be the case for one of them.

She took the freighter off the ground and angled it to soar into the atmosphere.

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime's hand braced himself as he held onto the chair in front of him as the freighter picked up and hit the atmosphere.

"Ah, your anchor. Your mother."

The situation clicked together for Hawkins and he grinned which looked more like he was gritting his teeth while his lips pulled back into a thin sneer, revealing too white teeth set in black gums. Ever since Grime's... ascension from his previous life, he found himself thrust beyond the domain he had only ever known, even as vast as it had seemed back then and had found himself a far more primordial purpose since then. He glanced down at the helm in his hand that he held by one of the long, curved horns.

These Chiss... As another person, the race was not a complete unknown, blue skin, red eyes, rare enough in Hutt space. Grime could not remember a time that he had truly encountered one beyond mere passing. In some ways, what little he had heard of their prejudices, it reminded him of Hutts. He could feel the flesh beneath the exoskeleton quiver as the rage coursed through his body for a moment.

"Guards. Any Force users? What weapons? Tell me about these Chiss. You and your mother like licking their boots for scraps from their tables?"

[Vala'drella]

"Frak off."

Vala was dead serious when she stared at the man. "You want in? Then you stop insulting me."

Without her sending messages and knowing where to go and the access codes she had memorized, he wouldn't get in Chiss territory and the depot. He wouldn't get any information. And it was high time he got that he wasn't the one holding the leash right now. If he wanted to discard her and try his luck against the Senator on his own, she'd laugh from the big void that came after life.

[Hawkins Grime]

His blue eyes locked with hers, the pain lining them hiding the sliver of mad laughter there. So young. That defiance. Grime resisted the shuddering impulse to fight her over anything, nothing. The sharp inhaling sounded like wet wheezing that followed her retort. Grime closed his eyes, the temperature spiking before it settled, even less than before and staying there. This was why Hawkins kept e'Drain and Orar around. The bitterness and rage that festered within the exoskeleton was ill equipped when it came to simple civility. To think that in his past life, he had even been described as charismatic, venomously so. Hawkins breathed out, his artificial tongue pressing against the back of teeth.

"..."

Grime took another moment to settle his ire before speaking again. Prioritizing what he could manage.

"Guards. Force users. Weapons."

[Vala'drella]

She didn't look away. She didn't care that he was a kriffin walking heater for whatever reason. Heck, he'd make a fortune for fancy clients on Hoth or in any glacial area. The thought briefly amused her.

She waited for his reply, the ship now away from the planet. Within the next thirty minutes they should be able to enter hyperspace.

"No Force users. The Senator will have her three closest aides, and the security will include my mother, a Rattataki, three Chiss assassins, one Noghri, Irohk. Irohk is older but I've seen him beat well trained Chiss security officers before. The depot itself has a fifteen member crew, most slaves working under three Chiss lieutenants. No external weapons, but a contingent of security droids was delivered the day after I left."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime moved and sat in the seat beside her, leaning back cautiously.

"So... how are you going to explain... my presence then? What's their... likely reaction?"

==========

"Who's the friend?"

"A friend, tha's all, alright?"

"Well your friend ain't welcome, ya drugged up-"

The small black blade that pressed up into the under meat of the bouncer's jaw was segmented in order to break off in pieces within whatever unfortunate victim fell prey to it.

"Now, now. She just said I was her friend."

CENSORED leaned in, winked, then slammed the knife upwards and snapped off the tip in his throat.

==========

Grime ran a metal hand through his black-blue hair, his armored chest heaving with a sigh that his exoskeleton could not prevent exaggerating.

"How long until we get there?"

[Vala'drella]

"I'll explain the second form aboard the ship by saying that one of the Senator's contacts finally made time to see her," Vala replied matter-of-factly. "She had been asking about this person for months. Said contact is dead but she ignores it. I have kept the charade alive since then. Didn't know when it would come handy." She might have always come back because of her mother who was never allowed to go away from the Senator, but she learned many tricks over the years and had her own secrets and private assets.

"She met the contact in question only once and many years ago, so you play this however you want once we disembark," she added.

"We'll be there in thirty seven hours."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime sighed, his mouth open at an odd angle for a face before his teeth gritted together again.

"Thirty seven hours...? What are we to do with so much time together?"

He gave her no immediate chance to respond as he stood back up, taking his helmet again and stepping to the back of the cockpit. He glanced at the navcharts and readings before looking back to her. Chiss space. Something about the girl's mannerisms maybe, it was indicative of the Chiss? A practical sense that accepted death as it came. Grime felt an opportunity rising, something he felt was nearly just within his grasp, but as to what, Hawkins assumed he would find out in approximately 37 hours.

[Vala'drella]

"I'm fairly sure you could go out and push to see if we can make it in thirty-six hours instead," Vala replied wryly.

She stayed in the cockpit until they had entered hyperspace, and then she made her way to the galley because she could eat a rancor with how bloody hungry she was.

She knew that he had to keep her alive to make it to their destination, so she didn't bother playing suspicious hostess. With the armor he was wearing, she didn't even know if he could eat like a normal living being, so she didn't offer. If he wanted something, he would ask.

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime did not immediately follow. The flesh inside his armor roiled. The image of her eyes frantically pleading as he crushed the front of her jaw with his hands was one he did not want to immediately dismiss. The vents in his back hissed slightly with another sigh as Grime felt the inside of the exoskeleton compensate for his distraught organics. Hawkins glanced down at his metal fist, closing his eyes; the suit hissing violently as he fought back the rage that waited there in his idle contemplation. The objects embedded within him pulsed off beat to his own heart beat. Not right now.

==========

The metal framed scarecrow stood, stutter stepping to a stable stance.

"Good, good. Standing on your own! The synchronization will take much longer but you're making remarkable process!"

The gurgling and hissing that came from the black dome that encapsulated the head of the walking corpse was just as intelligible as it had begun since the body had regained enough consciousness to bother with any remarks.

"Now, now, Mr. Grime. Practice makes perfect. Your associates paid in full for your recovery. You're going to need quite some time to practice with your current state. Don't stir yourself up, the inner stress will literally tear you apart."

===========

Hawkins stopped outside the galley where she was preparing food.

"Why do you and your mother remain?"

[Vala'drella]

"She can't leave," Vala replied sternly. She didn't feel like sharing details. If her mother had been able to leave without being one hundred percent sure she'd get killed in the process, because of some sneaky technology, mother and daughter would have already made a run for it, regardless of how the Senator always kept the Rattataki warrior by her side.

"I'm the one going outside Chiss borders," she simply added, in between heartful bites. Gods, she was starving. It amused her how she tended to bring religion and spirituality in all that crap. Frankly, she didn't believe in bloody higher powers but it was just speech habits, really.

"So, interested in Chiss matters, hmm?" She casually answered, not really thinking she'd get an answer. For the little she had gathered about this stranger, he kept his cards to himself.

[Hawkins Grime]

His steel blue eyes slid from the nothing he was examining in the hallway to the woman in the galley. He could feel his wretched core shuddering within the exoskeleton. At times the pain was so pervasive that it seemed to have a detached feeling to it as if he was watching someone else's corpse shiver with it's last throes of life. What did this girl know? Who was she to presume as much of anything about him? Why hadn't Grime just smeared her across the inside of her ship already? The answer to her question answered his last question. He was interested but not to the extent that she likely thought. His interest drove to a depth that surpassed the details and circumstances. Whether it was the Chiss or anyone else, it came down to the principle. Grime released his clenched fist and slid his gaze down to his metal hand, examining the waves of heat that he could barely see exuding from his exoskeleton. Hawkins involuntarily swallowed more black bile into the recycling systems of the exoskeleton before he spoke, his voice slick with it like oil.

"Hm... The Chiss Ascendancy. You can elaborate more upon them then? I know they.. have blue skin with red eyes and while they're hard to catch... they still bleed... and until now that's all I've needed to know."

Hawkins turned to face her, the black liquid rimming his eyes. Silly, little bird.

==========

"I had no idea-"

"No idea what?"

"I should've never..."

"You're right. You should have never."

CENSORED slid his the knife up her throat, his other hand against her forehead, holding it back against the wall before he ripped the knife downwards. It had been the principle of the matter at that point.

[Vala'drella]

The way he asked questions about the Ascendancy was somewhat interesting. She hadn't known how familiar he was given his decision but he didn't seem to be so much informed about them. Maybe it was a ploy though she still answered the question, in between eating with solid appetite.

"They have advanced technology, some similar to the rest of the galaxy, some vastly different. They mostly keep to themselves and having strong interest for other regions and cultures isn't well considered, which is why the Senator has me run errands discreetly. They are a very stoic species. They are convinced of their superiority. Most of them are extremely calculating and they can be good at manipulation. They aren't prone to strong emotional display or gut-inspired decisions as I saw in several other aliens during my travels."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime tilted his head to the side.

"And you... errand girl, benefit how by allowing an outsider like me an unexpected audience with your... Senator?"

He could see the impact that growing up with the Chiss had on the girl and he found it remotely insufferable, punishable. Not yet. How then was she calculating this scenario? What was her endgame? Grime had an idea, a few enticing hypotheses but it mattered not in many ways but for the principle at stake.

[Vala'drella]

"You have your goals. I have mine," Vala replied cooly. Since she didn't know exactly what he had in mind for this meeting, she didn't have a firmly set course about what she could do once they reached the depot.

Frankly, she had no idea how this would play out. She knew he might kill her as well, but she would make the best of what time she had remaining, whether a few hours or many years.

[Hawkins Grime]

The slick, wet sound, like something slapping against a solid surface was Grime's version of chuckling.

"Fine... then."

The mental image of prying her jaw open with his fingers and seizing her tongue was vividly at the front of his mind, the whispering of patience diminished behind it.

"If free of the Chiss, what would you and your mother do otherwise?"

[Vala'drella]

"We'd leave Chiss space and find places to earn money with our skills." Vala replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

Her mother was an outstanding warrior and could easily find another job as a bodyguard or some kind of mercenary.

"I've spend time in the galaxy enough to make some contacts over the years." She had some aces up her sleeve, but it all boiled down to how her mother's life was tied to the senator's, for they had never been able to find the switch to the dangerous implant in her mother's body.