Coronet Spaceport Coronet City, Corellia 41 ABY
The steady hum of Bril’s Upsilon-class Command Shuttle rang in his ears as he descended down the loading ramp at the starship’s rear. Coronet City’s main spaceport was as busy as one might expect from the capital city of one of the most important planets in the Core Worlds; starships of all sizes and models drifted in and out of the gargantuan hanger, and even more people of more species than he could count zipped around.
“Hello Corellia,” he said excitedly while stretching his arms overhead to release any tension built up in his muscles. The journey had taken them a little over six days to arrive from the Dajorra system–standard time for a ship sporting a Class 1 hyperdrive. And he was lucky the shuttle loaned to him by the Collegium came equipped with a droid brain navigator, because he likely never would’ve been able to get them there without it. He had never been to Corellia, after all. Or any of the Core worlds, for that matter.
Once he reached the bottom of the ramp, he turned to peer back into the ship. Slarakk, his IG-100 Magnadroid, reached the bottom shortly after he had. Now, all he had to do was wait for Cryo.
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Cryo was roused from her sleep the moment the shuttle broke through Corellia’s atmosphere. After six whole days stuck in a ship, she couldn’t wait to finally be free. She slid out of her bunk and dressed up in her armor, hurrying through the process so when the ship finally landed she was dashing down the ramp just after Bril had stepped onto the landing platform.
Just as the Zabrak had, she began to stretch her muscles, groaning as she felt some bones crack. “How about a faster ship next time,” She said, not exactly pleased by the long ride. She took in her surroundings. The sheer variety of ships, people, and sounds astounded her.
“I’d always heard stories about Corellia, but we never had a reason to come here,” She commented to anyone who might be listening.
“Faster ships require more credits,” he noted while scanning the hangar’s interior. “I was lucky enough that the Aurora Collegium of Sciences loaned me this ship until I could afford my own.”
More than a few passersby gave them long looks before continuing onward to attend to their business. Bril wasn’t sure if it was because of him, Cryo, or Slarakk–likely a combination of all three. Bril because of his unusual attire and a Clone Wars era droid employed by the Confederacy of Independent System, and Cryo, who wore armor used by Arc Troopers in the Grand Army of the Republic. In other words, they looked like they’d been plucked from a different time and dropped here.
“I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but I just want to remind you that our affiliation with the Brotherhood must remain strictly confidential. We’ve successfully avoided the detection of the larger Galaxy for this long, and I don’t want to be the one responsible for that changing. Master Ruka would be so upset…”
The young Zabrak dropped his head in a comically dramatic fashion. He could almost feel the Mirialan Proconsul’s judging gaze boring into the back of his neck. Leading them over to the admissions terminal, Bril nodded to the Weequay man standing behind the counter.
“Chain codes,” intoned the man.
Bril nodded and extended his Mandalorian vambrace, causing a holograph of his biographical information to materialize above it. After a few moments of examining it, the man nodded before gesturing to Cryo.
“Chain codes,” he said again while narrowing his eyes at her.
Cryo’s first thoughts were as to why the Aurora Collegium of Sciences couldn’t borrow him a faster ship if this was supposed to be some sort of important mission, but just shrugged instead. Who was she to complain or care about a ship that wasn’t even hers? At least they got there.
Prying eyes of passersby weren’t new for the Clone. She had visited many a planet where the native peoples were either fascinated by her and her brothers or disgusted by the fact that they were there in the first place. But just like she did then, she just focused on those around her and her goal. She rolled her eyes behind her helmet when he mentioned keeping the brotherhood a secret, wanting to snark at him about it but choosing not to and instead followed him to admissions.
When asked for her chain codes, she promptly presented them, the hologram listing off her rather unique biology to the man behind the counter. While the codes were being inspected, she turned to look at Bril. “I’d be more worried about that droid of yours,” She said with disdain. She was not happy to discover that Bril owned a Magna Guard, of all things. She’d watched one of these kill a few of her brothers, and it took all of her willpower to not pull out her blaster and kill the damned thing.
A frown appeared on Bril’s face when Cryo mentioned the droid, though not because of what she said. Not exactly, at least. He could feel the anger and suspicion oozing off of her, and all of it was directed at his Magnaguard. It came as no surprise, since she’d fought in the Clone Wars.
“Hey, I apologize about not asking you if you’d be comfortable with Slarakk coming along.” he began, moving to place a hand on the Magnaguard’s shoulder plate. It stood about two inches taller than Bril and was dressed in a beige designer Kokillic jumpsuit that Minnie had chosen for it. The two of them had reached the compromise that it didn’t have to wear the pink jumpsuit while he was on missions, much to his relief.
“I’m aware of the history these droids have, and I can assure you that it’s no threat to you. Completely different programming than the originals.”
“I don’t know what’s worse,” her distinct accent sounded more evident than it ever had in Bril’s time of knowing Cryo, almost as if she was right back where she was from. “The fact that you brought it or that you dressed it up in people clothes.” Assuming the guy was done looking at her codes, she crossed her arms and looked up at Bril, her eyes hidden behind the black visor of her helmet
Cryo turned away from the two. “Doesn’t matter now, you brought it, and it’s here now. Where are we going?” She asked, her words short and to the point. She couldn’t believe the audacity of the Zabrak to bring a droid like that along without even asking her, especially since he knew where she was from and the war she fought in.
“Technically, I’m not the one who dressed him up,” he shrugged his shoulders, fighting back the urge to chuckle. “It was my girlfriend who insisted. She didn’t approve of the attire I selected for him myself. And droids are people, too, you know.”
He lucked back at her upon making that last comment, tapping his finger on the side of his head to mimic one of those popular images he’d seen on the holonet–the one that basically encourage the viewer to “think” with the gesture.
After that, Bril touched a button on his vambrace to activate its mini-holoprojector, providing them with a holoimage of their destination.
“We’re set to meet with Corsec, Corellian Security Forces, at their headquarters in Corsec Plaza. I had our chaincodes altered to say that we’re from a private firm that specializes in investigating the theft of high value cultural and historical artifacts. All but one of the major museums in the city have been burglarized in the last two weeks. They think we’re here to provide our services to help find whoever is responsible.”
Bril paused for a moment to let her ruminate on his explanation for a bit, then continued. “And we are, but not for the reason they think.”
Then they’re people who killed my people She thought to herself grimly. She didn’t know if she’d ever be able to trust a droid after all that had happened, and she wasn’t really interested in making any life-changing breakthroughs at this particular moment.
She turned around to face him once again, the need to be respectful of those around her pulling her out of her frustrated mindset and back into the moment. Into the mission. “You did say historical archeology and anthropology were your fields of expertise,” Cryo said, wanting to display that she had not only listened to what he had told her but that she bothered to remember.
“I’m assuming we’re gonna do some sort of stakeout?” She said before thinking back on his last comment “…We’re gonna steal the artifacts, aren’t we?”
Now she was starting to catch on.
“Exactly. Though, I wouldn’t really call it stealing. Reappropriating. Most artifacts found in museums, especially the really old ones and the ones that have been there for a long time, are often stolen from the cultures who created them. I’m going to correct that injustice.”
Cryo was rather chuffed at his answer. It was relatively… mature given his age. She expected him to say he wanted them for research or to keep them safe, but the fact that he wanted to essentially save them from those who stole them from their indigenous people… she found that rather honorable.
“I’m in” She said quite plainly,
“Excellent,” he said excitedly, “This is going to be fun. By the way, the best way to get this done is waiting around for the actual criminals to show up. Then, we’ll steal—I mean reappropriate–it from right under their noses.”
“Makes sense to me. Are we not going to go meet Corsec then?”
“We are. The museum is actually not that far from the CorSec headquarters.”
Cryo adjusted her holsters on her thighs and check her belt, suddenly frowning under her helmet “I uh… I forgot a commlink” she said, a little embarrassed at the realization
“No worries. I always keep an extra one in my Envoy back,” said Bril while reaching into his pack. He tossed her a small comlink she could wear around her wrist. “It’s already tuned to the channel that mine is, so we’ll be able to communicate with one another.
Cryo watched him reach into his bag, taking the chance to glance at the droid once again, her heart beating hard in her chest. She was quite literally made to tear droids like it apart, and she was having a hard time resisting.
The clone caught the comlink and strapped it to her wrist, quickly turning her head back to Bril “In case we get split up”