After a while of navigating their way through the tangle of The Whitedrift Exchange, the crew arrived at the hangar where the Razor Crest was being stored, "why do I never get to fly my own ship?" The Mandalorian bemoaned
"I don't know, babe" Xi'an replied, half mockingly as they all boarded the ship and Ivory and Martyr took the pilot and co-pilot seats
"everyone ready?" Ivory asked, to which the crew responded to with formal grunts, the pilots then flicked the ship causing it to grumble into life, then, in perfect synchronisation, pulled the Razor Crest up and out of the hangar bay aimed it in the direction of the Alzoc system and punched the hyperdrive into action, causing the stars to speed by into white streaks as they entered hyperspace. "that never gets old does it?" Ivory sighed, leaning back in his chair
"no it does not" Martyr replied
"careful with my ship" The Mandalorian said, clambering up into cockpit
"appreciate the advice, but you can stay down in the hold and plan your plan of attack with the others" Martyr replied
"Ran laid out the plan well enough, I don't think that will be necessary" The Mandalorian countered
"If you insist, Mando, why don't you tell anyone your name or show your face, we gave our reasons, what's yours?" Ivory asked
"it is the way" The Mandalorian stated
"that sounds like an honour code" Ivory noted
"of a sort" The Mandalorian replied
"heh, Martyr here can tell you all about the terrible things an unshakable code can make you do" Ivory said ominously
"ooh, so many things but, on the other hand, being without one can leave a broken, drifting mess as Ivory can well tell you" Martyr replied
"I can see Imperial service rattled you two" The Mandalorian said
"no kidding, but hey made some friends along the way" Ivory replied
"lost most of them too" Martyr added
"when did you realise it was all over for the empire?" Tha Mandalorian asked
"honestly, I wasn't totally sure which way it would go until the 2nd death star went boom" Ivory answered
"Jakku" Martyr answered shortly
"a true loyalist, huh?" The Mandalorian said
"like Ivory said, I have, had… not sure, a stringent code of honour ingrained in me from my culture" Martyr replied
"that she does, say, when do you realise it was all over?" Ivory asked
"Honestly, when it happened, I keep up with galactic politics insofar as it concerns my next pay check, I was working an assassination job on this grimy backwater planet, some local aristocrat had gotten in bad with some underworld types and they wanted him scrubbed, so, when I get to his office he's watching the holoscreen and its showing the news of the signing of The Galactic Concordance and I say 'bad day for business, huh?'" The Mandalorian said with a morose chuckle
"must have been, especially for you, considering how hard the NR has cracked down on the Bounty Hunter's Guild" Ivory said
"you got that right, business is rough, one of the reasons I signed on this crazy mission," The Mandalorian replied, "though, what happened next cheered me up no end,"
"What happened?" Ivory asked
"he begs for his life, by saying he's got children, I mean, what kind of innately positive mark on your character is that, so, I put a blaster bolt between his eyes" The Mandalorian laughed followed by Ivory and Martyr
"Tell me about it, my dad had me and that didn't make him not an abusive asshole" Ivory replied, exasperated
"hah!" Martyr laughed, "I didn't know Mandalorians had such a sense of humour, well honestly, I don't much at all about Mandalorians, you guys are rarer than a black-spotted Muunyak, tell me, are any of the stories true? Did you tame the Mythosaurs? Can you take on an entire squad of stormtroopers single handed? Did you forge a saber from the stars themselves?" Martyr asked, the light coming back into her eyes for the first time in what seemed a very long time. The Mandalorian remained stony silent and before Martyr could prod him again, the Razor Crest lurched out of hyperspace above Alzoc III, its bleached bone-white surface standing out against the inky void. "ok folks, bringing us in, be ready, we don't know what could be waiting for us down there" Ivory called down into the hold, the rest of the crew, soon joined by The Mandalorian, were already kitting themselves out with armour, weapons and general kit from the Razor Crest's armoury as the pilots brought the ship down past the wreckage of a planetary sheild ring and through the thick atmosphere and onto a landing pad in Thessima's central district. "you two packing?" Ran asked Ivory and Martyr
"of course we're packing, we are wanted criminals" Martyr replied like Ran was an idiot
"Jus' checkin,'" Ran said defensively, pressing the release button to drop the ramp and being greeted by nothing but the hub-hub of the city, "that's a relief, but stay on guard, let's go find a local watering hole and find out what's what" he finished, gesturing for the crew, save the pilots to follow him, which they did.
"now, don't be leavin' us behind, ok?" Xi'an called back to the pilots as the crew made their way from the ship, Martyr responded to this with a look of the utmost incredulity
"are you questioning my honour?" Martyr replied angrily
"you're a no-good low-down criminal, course I'm questioning your honour" Xi'an answered
"we are not going to leave you behind!" Martyr shouted as if her very essence was being questioned, slamming the button to retract the ramp
"whatever ya say, hot stuff!" Xi'an called, returning to face the group, "wow, that girl is wound up tightly"
"of course she is, they've both been fighting a war probably since they graduated school, cut them some slack" The Mandalorian replied
"well, we haven't exactly had it easy, have we?" Xi'an countered
"well, you are psychotic, so the mayhem of the civil war was your element" The Mandalorian
"Thanks, babe" Xi'an replied
"cut the chatter you two and keep an eye out, I get the feeling outlanders 'aint welcome here" Ran called as they entered a seedy-looking but helpfully populated bar called The Governor's Arms, drawing suspicious looks from the locals as they went. The bar itself was almost indistinguishable from the on The Whitedrift, save for some regional trappings: dark and seedy and filled with pliable mouths. "ok everyone, fan out and see what you can learn about these Spikesharks" Ran said, the group splitting up to grill patrons for any information that may be useful for their assault on The Bastion.
"I can't say 'nothin, they'll take me and do gods know what to me" whispered an anxious Ithorian, her translator crackling
"They paid me a pretty credit, hic, to bring in some of that cheap red gas for their blasters, so I'd guess their trying to arm a large force on the cheap, now, you gonna buy me that drink?" a drunk Kessurian mumbled
"donna go there, is'a cursed!" a terrified Gungan wailed
"I'm the fastest flier on Alzoc III!" a shabby Arkanian in an unkempt flight suit grandly proclaimed, unprompted
"poor old Hal-Tek got blown out of the sky by their guns for slipping into their self-declared airspace for a second" an Imroosian lamented
These tales of terror and impenetrability were all the crew were able to get with little variation, so they all eventually gave up and reconvened at the entrance
"Anyone learn anything o' use?" Ran asked
"this is a suicide mission and we are all doomed to fall to the curse of Darth Evilus or something" Xi'an replied, spinning her dagger in contempt
"I thought that was already clear from the brief" The Mandalorian said flatly
"heh," Qin chuckled, "all I was able to learn was that they've got a lot of goons holed up in there but their armed with the cheap red stuff"
"well, at least that's something, good thing the Razor Crest doubles as a flying armoury" Ran noted, gesturing for the other three to follow him back to the Razor Crest, keeping a low profile as they did so to avoid the ire of the ever-suspicious locals, though as they'd just learnt this may have been more down to fear of their pirate masters than plain xenophobia. They eventually made their way back to the Razor Crest and banged on the ramp for Ivory and Martyr to open it up, which they did so.
"how did it go?" Martyr asked, wearing a pleased but bedraggled expression
"the locals are all quaking in their boots on account of the pirates, we weren't able to learn much except there is a lot of them" Qin replied
"ah well, lets hope these pirates aren't ones for surprises, get on and let's go find out" Ivory said, wearing a similar expression to Martyr.