Session export: Trouble in Tairiku

Emere Galo’s dark eyes quietly scanned the room, taking note of each of the passengers aboard the fancy ship. The Brotherhood was a wide breadth of individuals from rich to poor and the ilohan preferred somewhere in the middle. The rest was simply excessive.

The woman offered Bril a simple nod to his announcement and ventured to the bar to get herself a soda.

Were it possible, a buffering symbol would have appeared over Zig’s head. The Zygerrian’s indigo hair was tied back and up into its unique braid-bun that made slipping her helmet on and off easier, and her brow was knitted in thought.

Bril has a daughter? I really need to pay more attention to things outside of the ‘breaker. Maybe I do need to touch more grass?

Keeping the reflections internal, she instead said, “Hard to complain about Sienar ingenuity.” Sienar Fleet Systems was the manufacturer behind the T2, and they were known well known for their craftsmanship at least.

Zig’s yellow eyes flicked immediately toward a familiar set of dark ones.

“Emere! Hi!” Zig exclaimed, trotting over to her. She left her helmet on the seat she had been sitting on.

Upon being approached, Emere resisted the urge to recoil. The energetic radiance of the Zygerrian was almost painful.

“You don’t always have to be so stiff, mom. Not everyone is out to get you…” Morra’s words reverberated through her skull.

“Hey,” she replied stiffly, face as stony as ever. She guessed this was the part where she pretended to be interested in the other person’s life. But it wasn’t in her nature to outright lie like that.

She sipped her beverage and stared intently at Zig.

“It’s definitely something,” Angelica said under her breath. The Kendis had found herself on yet another mission for Arcona, and this time she couldn’t even blame her daughter. It had been her sister’s idea. Something about power in numbers and outreach. She didn’t understand why they couldn’t keep doing things on their own like they had been but there was no point in arguing.

Angel remained seated for the time being, looking at her discolored eye in the reflection of her helmet, making sure nothing had changed since the last time she checked this morning.

Jelc looked about the room at all the unfamiliar faces, these would be his teammates, so probably should get to know them, then he saw Angelica sitting quietly in her armor. And recognized the armor. He had donned his black Ren armor so his face was covered, but he still would come sit by his new family, happy at least to see one familiar face.

“Hey there stranger.”

He said in his very familiar gentle sweet calming voice.

“You doing all right?”

Angel’s head snapped up, her helmet forced into her lap with its visor turned away, shame pitted in her stomach. “Hey, Jelc, hi. I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, happily surprised. “I’m doing just fine. Just checking for any damage on the helmet. Looks like everything’s fine.”

He took off his helmet a moment and flashed her that same sweet grin.

“Always good to check equipment. I decided to answer the call for help, didn’t expect to see you here, but I am glad.”

He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “I got your back if you need me.”

Zig smiled, as naturally and easily as she tended to. She idly tucked a flyaway hair behind one pointed ear. “It’s good to see you,” she said simply. She didn’t reach or touch, but gave a polite bob of her head and then swiveled to take in the other new people she wasn’t familiar with yet.

“Hi! I’m Zig, but you can just call me Zig. I mean wait…” she pretended to mess up her own introduction and offered a quick wave at Jelc and Angelica.

Her Ascendent drone hovered, as if trying to perch, on her shoulder and remained, blessedly, quiet for now. She probably should have left ‘Clair at home.

Talia Ultear-Aran sat calmly on the floor in the corner, her legs crossed as her lightsaber-pike floated in front of her, the pieces of it disassembled and slowly being reassembled. Her mask rested over her nose, her gold eyes slowly opening and scanning the room as the conversations began between the others.

“Thanks. It’s weird without Thea. You remember her? She was at the shame corner when we first met,” she said, not without a bit of shame for how she treated Jelc that day.

Her attention was drawn to a vibrant, armored zygerrian who at first seemed rather endearing. Then Angel saw the construct floating near her shoulder, painted in flashy colors, surely to make it seem less threatening than it truly was. Her fists clenched as she smiled back. “You can call me Angel. It’s nice to meet you, Zig.”

Adele glanced around the common area, taking in the people assembled there. It occurred to her that she had become somewhat reliant on her reputation within her family and her brother’s easy-going demeanor to meet people, and it left her quite uncertain about how to navigate the situation. Now that people were pairing off for conversation, it seemed rude to intrude. Her eyes fell on Talia, who seemed to be using the Force to disassemble and reassemble her lightsaber pike. Seeing someone who had the good sense to check her equipment before a mission seemed like a good start, so she moved to sit near her, arriving moments after Bril.

Not wanting to intrude on their conversation, she gave both of them a nod in greeting, before beginning to check her own lightsaber.

“Yep I do and just how upset you were because she was hurt if I am recalling and of course, that whole day was quite a moment, but hey we got through it and better for it.” He turned and gave a friendly wave to Zig. “Hey there, You can call me Jelc. Just gonna recheck my gear a bit make sure it’s ready, maybe snag a snack there and introduce myself to the rest after a bit.” He smiled as he started to routineoy recheck everything. “Let’s see tools, guns, loaded, Sith dagger that Tasha gave me. Don’t touch the sharp bits cause they are poisoned.” He chuckles softly.

Zig smiled. “Angel is a lovely name,” she nodded. When she noticed the shift in posture, subtle though it may have been, Zig flicked the Ascendent drones chassis.

“OW, WHAT THE KARK ZIG,” the droid chirped, its voice actually quite feminine and lilted like an imperial aristocrat, albeit robotic. She also

“Angel, this is my friend ‘Claire. She’s a rescue-droid—”

“—Excuse me Zig. My name is Princess Eclair and I will have you know I am a pure-wired, highly advanced Ascendent—”

“—no one cares, 'Clair,” Zig interrupted. “Anyway, as you can see, she’s harmless to us. I know it might seem scary, but she’s more likely to judge you for your clothing choices than anything else.”

Before the drone could protest, Zig quickly added. “And she’s very good at shooting bad guys with her laser.”

Eclair made the droid equivalent of a huff, but then her photorecptor oscillated, realized a familiar face, and floated over towards the blonde woman.

“Hiii Adele,” Eclair greeted.

Zig noted Jelc and waved at him as well.

Talia’s glare shifted to Bril, striking him with piercing eyes, “Indeed I did. When spending time in the wilds, you understand how important a simple long stick can be.” She gripped the staff and stood up with it, looking up at Bril. “Plus it good for hitting people over the head with if discipline is needed.”

Adele waved to Princess Eclair in greeting. “Just Adele, please,” she said to Bril. “You have a beautiful ship. And your ‘stick’ is very nice too.”

“Well, I can see why you’re proud of it.” She smiled at the sight of his grin. She hadn’t been sure how the joke would have gone over. “I must admit, I was a bit surprised when you invited me on this excursion.”

“that’s a very… Colorful droid,” Angelica commented, keeping her voice steady and friendly. Her shoulders relaxed only slightly as the so called princess hovered towards a different group.

“What about you? Spent all that time introducing it, you might as well tell me what you’re good at.”

Zig blinked a few times before then thinking and responding in turn. “Oh, lottsa stuff. I’m really good at fixing and creating things with modifications –anything mechanical, really. I’m an okay-enough pilot, but I’m really good at blowing things up, slicing into or protecting security systems, punching things, herding introverts…” she ambled a bit longer.

“What about you?” she asked finally, seemingly ending her list.

Jelc finished up his check and walked over to the refreshments and grabbed a skewer of meat as he watched Zig and Angel chat, amused slightly.

“Sounds like a solid set of skills,” Angel said, leaning back in her seat as far as her jetpack would allow. “I’m good at flying and fighting, not much else if I’m being honest.”

“My kinda gal,” Zig grinned.

Angel flashed a quick smirk back, chuckling softly. “I’m new to all this Arcona stuff. My daughter was explaining to me that there’s two different house things? I think? Are you part of any of those?”

Zig nodded along. “Yeppers. So, you have two houses– Galeres, and Qel-Droma,” she explained holding up both hands in fists to add flare to her explanation.

“Galeres mostly operates out of Selen our lovely home planet and focuses on our military support efforts and other initiatives. Qel-Droma–where I am–is headquartered on our Shadow Port. We handle more of the intelligence based operations but also drag the Galerians around with us on important missions because we love them.”

Zig made a flying motion with her hands. “We have a ship called the Voidbreaker, which is where a bunch of us live and work out of.”

She molded her hands together, interlocking her fingers. “Either way, we are still One Clan. Just with, uh, different flavors that work together!”

A TIE Bomber dropped out of hyperspace on an intercept course with he Maslanii. Blackhawk had, sensibly, informed the locals in advance of the impending arrival of Tarentum Wraith so they wouldn’t panic and try to shoot down its pilot.

They pulled alongside the yacht, matching its speed for the dozen or so seconds Blackhawk needed to teleport from his ship before the bomber pulled away. The Clawdite drifted in space for a few moments, allowing inertia to carry him close to the other vessel. Once he was close enough, he simply selected a viewport, and appeared on its opposite side.

“Sounds simple,” Angel said with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a newcomer. “Well then,” she said.

Adele gave the newcomers a nod as she continued checking her equipment.

Most of her time was spent doing equipment checks and repetitive quick draw motions. Small talk and hors d'oeuvres were a waste of time. So the call that they were being briefed was like music to her ears.

The mission objectives were simple enough. Execution remained entirely up to the group and their abilities. Although… she did have one question.

“Is the use of lethal force prohibited?”

Blackhawk chimed in. “Is there an opportunity, potential or otherwise, to infiltrate the inner circle of the Shogunate? If I wanted to escalate a conflict, a false flag op would definitely be one of the more sure fire ways to do so.”

“There may be those within the Shogunate or the minority, possibly both, who would prefer relations turn hostile. I’m not here to destabilize a government, but there are certainly some who would benefi5 fr9m renewed hostilities. And it’s a reasonable assumption that whoever did this will try to strike again. It would be prudent to have someone positioned to apprehend them if and when they do.”

Adele clipped her lightsaber to her belt as she contemplated the details of the mission, as well as the questions that had already been asked. “Do we have dossiers on Ghek and any other key players?”

Angelica couldn’t help but softly chuckle to herself. If it wasn’t for the war, peacekeeping missions like this would’ve been her specialty. “Do you think Tugu will use our presence to instigate anything?”

“Hmm. Do we know where Daimyo Onaya has been recently? Or where he may have been particularly avoiding?”

“If instigation is an worry, why not run part of this as a stealth operation? Keep the heads happy while some of us investigate quietly.” Talia spoke up, her voice slightly modulated by her mask.

“If Onaya is in declining health, it may be worth looking into whether or not he is still truly in control of his forces, or if his number two has assumed power in his absence. If it turns out his enforcer is the true voice behind the throne, we may be faced with a bigger problem.”

Zig had been actively looking through things on her datapad, but was still keeping mental notes of the different topics.

Without looking up, not breaking focus on her task, fingers swiping, pinching and typing, she added, “Stealth isn’t the issue. If we want information, we can get it–while we did indeed cede control, we are still largely responsible for the infrastructure and security. I’m sitting through their public facing nodes and flagging potential vulnerabilities and lapses in certificates…I can put it together into a report and we can offer it as an olive branch. Some good old white helmet-slicing.”

She looked up, tilting her head, helmet tucked under her arm.

“I’d also like to meet this "Iron Fist”.

Adele studied the images and information intently. “What about the Sardenians? Who are the key players there? And what information do we have about the assassination itself?”

“So, find the cause of death, investigate the murder, if this is, in fact, a murder, and keep it relatively quiet. Anything else we need to know?”