Dust and her companions were situated around their ship the Mandible, a G9 rigger light freighter belonging to one Darveth Nightstalker, as they made their way to the core world Rhinnal, on call from a previous client of theirs who had come into some interesting artefacts that he believed Dust and her compatriots may be interested in.
Dust paused as she looked up from where she had been meticulously cleaning her heavy blaster pistol Denise, first towards the vast expanse of space before her position in the co-pilots seat and second, to her fellow human, Darveth, situated at the helm of his freighter, as he overlooked something or other on his data pad. The man was impeccably hard to read, though that may have had more to do with the combination of facemask and goggles that obscured all vision of his face to onlookers, than anything else. The physical barrier preventing others from viewing the severe scars purveying the obscured visage. Indeed, the man in black leathers was hard to read, body language being any and all cue others had to his emotional state, which often swung anywhere between aggressive and irate to calm(er) and collected, though for all the man's temper, usually directed at Dust herself for one thing or another she did, or didn't, do, the man proved himself worthy of being the leader of their small, and definitely dysfunctional, band of ragtag outlaws, and y'know, the fact that he also owned the ship contributed.
Turning back to her ministrations of Denise, Dust found herself once again contemplating the companions she had recently gathered. Stowing away on the Mandible all those months ago, had turned out to be her best move in years, I mean, sure, Darveth hadn't exactly been happy when he discovered the walking arsenal that was yours truly in his cargo hold, but, an attack by pirates and saving his life quickly endeared the man to her. Yup, Dust liked to think she grew on Darveth, Darveth himself likened her to cancer whenever she mentioned thus. They had been on their own for a little while after she had stowed away, then for around a month, maybe a month and a half, Darveth was moving them from system to system, the two mainly working as hired transport or, taking on the occasional mercenary work, however, things got interesting when they were on some random mid rim world and were approached by a man looking to book passage to the very planet they were headed towards now.
It had been her first introduction to Riskel Darmont, the scholar and university historian hiring mercenaries to protect himself and a couple of sensitive artefacts that he had only been able to pick up from the planet himself. The guy would have been fine with his previously hired help, if only a local band of some large crime syndicate hadn't blown up their only transport outta the city; whatever he'd been carrying was apparently worth quite a bit on the black market. Riskel was a pretty chill guy for a scholarly type, he was into his shit and was good at what he did, he also had connections to one of the larger information sources outside of Corusant in the form of the University of Rhinnal's substantial archives, and the easy friendship Dust had started up with the man was most definitely to exploit the podgy man for the wealth of information at his fingertips. Dust likened knowledge to power and power was most definitely something she craved.
Darveth's and Dust's first introduction to Riskel also introduced them to the remaining members of their merry band of misfits, who had sorta just stuck around with their sudden lack of ship and the recognition of their shared interests. The only other female, Daina Trest, was slight of build and gorgeous in everything else, her clear blue eyes matched well with her light hair, a pretty mix of blonde and brunette. She was a vain creature, pride most defiantly her downfall, though her looks certainly aided her silver tongue, as she charmed her way across the galaxy, persuasion her weapon of choice. The two women got on well, though Dust's inherit dislike of the 'vain, uppity, cheer-squad' type meant the two would often clash whenever Daina mentioned Dust's worn brown leather vest and boots, alongside the general wear and tear of her entire wardrobe, as she insisted the walking arsenal spend less money on her extensive collection of weapons, and more money on her appearance, an opinion most definitely not shared by the carefree armoury. Despite this, Dust valued the girl's persuasive abilities, and the two often banded together against the men, stating some form of 'feminine solidarity', an obligation to have each other's backs. Dust likened her to the sister she never got to have.
The final member of their conglomerate and the only non-human of the group, a kel-dor named Tyln Ihritche (pronounced: thai-lin ir-it-che), was by far the most centred and normal of the group. Dressed in beige robes and preferring to avoid the death that the others left in their wake, Tyln was most definitely the best and wisest of them. The humans of the group still had trouble figuring out how the hell the man of little words became a mercenary, though they supposed it was due his ability to control the galaxies preternatural magic, the Force, the one unifying factor that brought the four of them to one-another and, if nothing else, the single thing that was keeping them together now. After all, the Empire was a dangerous place for a force sensitive, many of the group having experienced the ire of the imperial army at some point throughout their lives.
While Dust acknowledged her Force sensitivity and had no qualms against using her manifested powers to enhance her mechanical abilities, she vehemently hated the powers she'd been born with for leading to her separation from her mother. Despite the dislike, the brunette found herself applying her abilities in more a subtler manner than the obvious movement of objects or healing of wounds while in the public eye. In Dust's opinion, the obvious and showy use of the force Tyln and Darveth employed was too... dangerous for the cautious girls tastes, and the kel-dor's latent ability to sense the life forces around him was something the human found she was unable to grasp. They all seemed to accept that Darveth's uncanny luck and innate skill while flying was most definitely due to his force sensitivity, the man being the best flyer any of them had seen throughout the entirety of their lives, and while Daina's persuasive abilities and superficial influence was something the three humans seemed to share, her infrequent visions was something unique unto her, alongside her ability to heal minor wounds. Dust did not observe her sensitivity to the Force manifesting in such ways, instead, she found herself quite suited to deception, the Force shielding her from view, as she forced people to forget she was there, or exuded an aura preventing people from even turning their eye to her in the first place. It was a handy trick, one that had gotten her out of trouble more than once, and a skill that had helped her avoid the imperials for as long as she had.
Dust was forced out of her contemplation of the Force and her friends at the beeping of the ships com system, a quick glance up from Denise saw Darveth already moving to answer the call, revealing the image of Riskel Darmont on the holoprojector in the middle of the console, a wide smile on his face. The man had changed little since she'd last seen him, the full beard was still present, silver beads still woven in throughout, his short hair evidently having not been cut in a while, swimming around just under his ears now, racing towards his neck and shoulders, the man's thick rectangular framed glasses still perched upon his nose. Dust pulled her face into a grin to greet him, his excitement encouraging the good feeling she'd been having about this whole trip.
"Friends, hello dear friends. Dust darling. Darveth. I'm so glad you agreed to join me, you're going to love what I've found; indeed, you are. Closing in on Rhinnal I hope? You still remember the way, of course?" The slightly accented, exuberant voice of Riskel greeted them. Dust opened her mouth to respond, glee in her eyes at getting to interact with someone other than her friends for the first time in a few weeks, before immediately backing off at Darveth's heated glare, honestly, say something wrong once and it's like every time Dust opened her mouth from then on out she was murdering a group of small puppies, she wasn't that bad at talking to people. Well, talking to most people. Ok, fine! So, she didn't always say the right thing, so sue her! S'not like everyone else was fricken perfect.
"Riskel, good to you again. We're still about an hour away from the planet, I imagine we'll be touching down soon after that." Darveth's deep voice intoned, as he turned his eyes towards to projected image of the man, the glare leaving his countenance as he removed his gaze from Dust.
"Good, good. I'm sure the rest of your journey will go marvellously then, now I had more motive behind this call then checking on your arrival time. As you know, my work at the university can mean I handle a great deal of sensitive objects and texts, and quite obviously, the university can't just allow the public to view such things, especially when they're currently being investigated, so naturally you will require access that I am unable to grant. Now I have little care just how you manage to gain access to my laboratory; however, I can inform you that you require the security clearance level 3, which includes professors of the university and a select few of the students."
"And you couldn't have informed us of this earlier Riskel?" Dust piped in, a hint of irritation in her tone. That really was information she'd wished she had earlier, a bit of time to figure out false passes before they landed on the planet really would have been preferable.
Riskel returned the comment with a sheepish grin, hand moving up to card nervously through the hair swimming around his ears, "Ahh, well, you see…. That may have slipped my mind in the excitement of it all. The items really are worth it, I know how much you lot are interested in old Jedi lore and artefacts, though why a group of mercs are interested, I'll never understand"
A smirk made its way onto Dust's face at the mention of the groups shared interests, "Well, you know me Riskel, I can't not say no to the pursuit of knowledge, especially where weapons are concerned. What I'd do to get a hold of an old Jedi lightsabre, hell, just the schematics of one would be amazing. To think of the power such a weapon would have…" she said, her tone gaining an edge of excitement and wistfulness the more she talked about the famed weapons, before she found Darveth's hand covering her mouth and cutting her off. A glare sent her way and the message was evidently clear to shut up before she got to into another one of her fanatical rants on the topic. A muffled 'Hey! What was that for" escaped her mouth before Darveth opened his own to reply to Riskel.
"As much as I hate to say it, Dust does have a point. We'll see what we can do about passes when we reach the planet. In the meantime, until we can gain access past security to your lab rooms why don't we meet when we get into the city, maybe then you can finally tell us a bit more about these objects you hold" he spoke, as he lowered his hand from the quietened Dust, who was sending a glare of her own back at the man as she huffed and crossed her arms across her chest, slumping down in the chair, one leg over the other, precious Denise resting in her lap.
Flicking his eyes back over to Darveth, the image of Riskel lowered his hand again as he made to reply to the Mandible's pilot, " Of course, of course. No reason why we can't meet once you've reached the surface, and it would be lovely to catch up with Daina and Tyln as well. Com me when you reach the surface darlings, I know the perfect place to go get lunch."
Darveth nodded his head in reply, "Very well, we'll com you when we reach Rhinnal, until then Riskal"
"Yeah, see ya soon bud!" Dust piped up, straitening a bit, as much as the position she was in projected her irritation at being muted, it really wasn't great on the back.
Riskel graced the duo with one last exuberant smile before saying his own goodbyes and ending the call. "In a couple of hours then, Dust dear, Darveth. May the rest of your journey be safe"
As the blue holographic visage of Riskel faded to nothing, Dust turned to Darveth a scowl on her face, "Y'know, I don't nearly get us killed every time I open my mouth, you can let me talk to people without blowing up the universe." She stated, irate.
Darveth's eyes flicked to her once before he went back to his datapad, oozing disinterest and nonchalance, "Yes, well, I don't want a repeat of the last time. It really is quite amazing how utterly bad you are at talking to people. You can speak sentences that don't offend, can't you?"
"As a matter of fact, I can. I've kept myself alive this long haven't I? It was one time Darveth. One time!" The girl defended.
"Be that as it may, it still happened." He stated before letting put a heavy sigh, "Alright, anyway, one of us should probably go let the others in on what's happening, kriff knows this makes this a hell of a lot more irritating. Why the hell did I agree to this trip again?"
Dust holstered Denise as she stood up out of the co-pilots chair before responding, "We're freaks Dar, and any knowledge on what we are is better than nothing, also I'm still reaaally hoping R's found us a lightsabre, or something cool, or at the very least something we can use. I'll go inform D and Ty, do you want me back here after?"
Darveth shook his head, "Na, go make love to your guns or something," he said, looking up at her as she was about to leave, the slight squint in his eye indicating that he was assessing the girl, who sighed in turn as Darveth spoke again, "On second thought go get some sleep, you look like you need it."
Dust opened her mouth to reply before the man cut her off, yet again, " I don't care if you cant actually sleep Dust-ball, you're going to lie down and close your eyes for the hour and a bit it'll take us to land on Rhinnal, got it?"
Dust just let out a sign before nodding, "Fine, I'll try and sleep" She responded before turning on her heel and leaving Darveth alone in the cockpit to seek out Daina and Tyln, both of whom would likely be found in their respective rooms.
Dust made her way towards Tyln first, it would be the quickest of the two conversations she needed to have and now that Darveth had mentioned it she was tired. Walking towards Tyln's room Dust tried to remember the last time she slept, it had to have been around 2 days. Yeah, that sounded about right.
Fatigue slowly creeping up on her, Dust arrived at the door to Tyln's room where she knocked once before entering. The sight that greeted her as she entered the room was a familiar one. The room itself was quite utilitarian, the man not owning much and not having much use for decoration. The man himself was situated on the floor in the middle of the room, legs crossed, eyes closed, arms resting comfortably on his knees, an assortment of small rocks floating about the air around him. He remained still as she entered, the single movement of his hand any indication that he had recognised her presence.
"I'll give you the rundown, Riskel just commed, we're about an hour and a half out from Rhinnal, we're gonna meet Riskel for lunch on the planet. Riskel forgot to inform us that we needed tier 3 security passes to enter the building and see the objects he wants to show us. We're gonna have to procure said security passes once we reach the surface." She spurted as she stood in the doorway.
The kel-dor nodded his head in acknowledgment. "Thank you" he intoned. Dust nodded her head in turn, "Right, cool, see you later bud." She said before leaving the man of little words to his own devices, taking the few steps required down the hall to Daina's door the corellian woman opened the door and walked right in.
The beauty herself was lounging on her bed, no doubt flicking through some form of fashion magazine on her data pad. Daina's blue eyes flicked to Dust as she barged into her room. "What?" she asked, voice deadpan, after all, nothing good ever came of Dust barging into her room unannounced.
"We've just had word from Riskel, and in the man's infinite wisdom he forgot to inform us that we can't actually see these artefacts he thinks we'll be interested in, apparently, we don't have the security clearance for it. Something I'll have to rectify when we reach Rhinnal in just over an hour." The short-haired brunette spoke as she leaned against Daina's doorframe.
"Trouble in paradise I see. I really don't understand why you three are up in arms over what's likely going to be some inconsequential old thing that while may be related to the Jedi, will ultimately be worthless in our quest for answers across the galaxy." The lounging girl emoted as she turned her head, giving Dust her full attention. The Alderanni native had been against seeing Riskel again, highly pessimistic that the man would have anything of relevance for them to peruse, the four of them needed to control their powers, not learn the history of a dead religion.
A sign escaped Dust's lungs as she shifted her weight, one hand coming to rest at her hip, the other folding across her torso as she leant against the doorframe, "Look, D, you know as well as I that information is information. At the very least we might find more relevant material wherever Riskel found the items. It's not like coming across information on the Jedi or the Force is common, we have to take what we've been given. Besides, I've got a good feeling about this, and you're the one always telling us to trust our feelings."
Daina let loose a sign of her own, "I know that Dust-ball, it's just… I don't have a good feeling about this. I feel as though this is it, that the second we step foot on that planet our lives will… I don't know!" she exclaimed in frustration, abandoning her datapad as she sat up on the edge of her bed. Dust stood up straighter, the beginnings of concern entering her eyes.
"Did you see something?" the question leaving Dust's lips as she searched her friend's face for the answer.
Daina's eyes turned downwards as tension filled her form, before she looked back up to Dust. "Yes, but I just…. I don't… It's… It's not clear. I only get images. There's an old temple or something, Its dark, decrepit, dusty. And I can… feel the age of the place, and there's… something else. Something just beyond my perception. I don't know what it all means Dust, but what I do know is that whatever we find on Rhinnal is going to lead us there. I can feel it in my bones."
"Do you feel like we're in danger?" Dust queried. Concern for herself and her friends evident in her tone. She was me with the shake of Daina's head, "No, I don't sense danger, but… I feel we should be cautious."
"Then we should be just fine, cautious is our middle name." the standing women quipped, a small smirk entering her face as promise of imminent danger was dissuaded and she tried to cheer her friend a little, a small smile filled Daina's visage in response.
"It may be our middle name but it is far from yours. Force knows I've had to patch you up enough because your 'cautious nature'" the seated woman exacerbated. The smirk on Dust's face remained at the barb aimed at her ability to attract trouble.
"Yes, well, it's not like I ever plan to get into trouble. Regardless, I've been ordered by Darveth to try and get some sleep, I should be going before we end up talking the rest of the trip to Rhinnal." She intoned, pushing herself up off the door frame, readying herself to cross the corridor to her own room, pausing only when Daina addressed her again.
"You still arnt sleeping? Dust! You know you need to tell me these things, I can help you sleep, you know that!"
The smirk dropped off Dust's face as she responded, "No Daina. I won't have you in my head. As much as I trust you, you know that's asking too much. I'll be fine, I feel a little tired, I'm sure I'll sleep, see ya when we land" And with that Dust crossed the corridor before Daina could respond and insist on using her abilities to aid her sleep, leaving her fellow female with a concerned look on her face as she remained seated on her bed.
Dust entered her room, which did not look to dissimilar to the others, a bed, desk, wardrobe and small set of shelves present in each of the rooms aboard the Mandible. There was little in Dust's room aside from clothing and weapons, a set of tools set aside on her desk for the repair of her weapons and the small mechanical projects she worked on. Her shelves full of odd bits of metal and mechanical parts. She didn't own much else. There was no abundance of makeup and hair products like Daina's room, no strange rocks or trinkets that had been accumulated over years of space travel like Tyln's abode and no pictures of lost family and old friends like those found in Darveth's corner of the ship. No, Dust's room was only occupied by the few changes of clothes she had and her precious weapons.
She caressed Denise, holstered at her side as she looked over towards the blaster rifle and the vibro-blade seated upon her desk. She had had the Rifle, Thomas, ever since she was old enough to handle the thing, only named later when word of her father's death reached her. As much as Dust loved the man who had taught her to shoot, she hated how he had to go and join the Corellian resistance. He was too good a man to be gunned down without remorse like he had been and she and her brother had needed him, her mother didn't cope well with the loss. Thoughts of her father also turned her gaze to the sheathed vibroblade resting next to the rifle, she could envision the engraving of her brother's name upon the blade. Corbin was young when he left for the Rebellion and Dust could only imagine her brother was dead at the hand of the Imperials that had splintered her family in the first place.
Her mind reminiscing ghosts of the past, Dust could feel the tight wave of bone-deep sadness well up in her chest and throat as it was want to do when she thought of her family for too long and too deeply. She gripped her right hand around Denise as the other clenched in a fist, refusing the tears the freedom they desired. She had hated when her brother left. Had hated what it had done to her mother. It made her hate herself for leaving too. She had left for the love she bore towards her mother. It was too dangerous for her to stay. Dust only hoped leaving meant her mother was left alone. The guilt and fear that the imperials had taken her mother despite her careful departure followed her everywhere. There would be no going back. No confirmation of her mother's health. It was too dangerous and it would be cruel to see her again, talk to her again, before leaving once more to protect her.
Dust forced down the tears and shoved them into the corner of her mind reserved for such things. She relaxed her hands, removing her right from the memory of her mother that she carried, removing the holster for the blaster pistol as she made her way to dump the gun on the desk before pulling off her vest, leaving it hanging over the chair and kicking her boots off, before dimming the lights and flopping onto her bed, turning her music on low in order to distract her mind as she willed sleep to take her.
It took a while, likely half of the remaining time to Rhinnal, but eventually, the tension draining from her body as she calmed down, Dust slept.