"Unidentified ship, state your designation und your business," a stern female traffic controller demanded in Chiss accented Basic.
"This is warship Star Crusher. We deleever passengers," Captain Rennet Panand replied slowly and calmly, in Mandalorian accented Basic.
The Chiss traffic controller noted the accent, and alerted her security chief.
"A Mandalorian warship has just exited hyperspace and has entered orbit over Csilla," she reported in her native language, Cheunh.
"A warship? It is alone?" the security chief demanded.
"Yes, Chief Maff'ran'kyan, and he says they are delivering passengers," she reported.
"What kind of passengers?" he demanded.
"A moment, Chief," she said, then to the warship in Cheunh accented Basic, "Vhat kind of passengers are you delivering, Star Crusher?"
"Paying passengers," Rennet Panand replied with a grin.
"Vhat ist zeh passenger's business?" the stern traffic controller demanded, with the security chief standing over her shoulder, listening in.
"Passenger weell tell you," Rennet Panand replied with a chuckle.
After a period of silence, the Chiss traffic controller and the security chief heard a woman's voice speaking in perfect Cheunh, the Chiss language.
"Nen 4, Vev 8, Aurek 12, Usk 0, Wesk 3, Senth 9, Krenth 13, Onith 64," Wrehn read aloud from her datapad.
Suddenly, on the scanner stations of both the Star Crusher and the orbital traffic control station, a warship appeared on their screens.
"Captain!" the sensor operator warned in Mando'a, "A large warship has decloaked and is approaching us quickly!"
"Security Chief!" the stern traffic controller warned in Cheunh, "A large warship has decloaked and is rapidly approaching the Mandalorian warship!"
"What is happening here?!" the security chief demanded rhetorically, knowing the traffic controller wouldn't have the answer to that.
"Yehw'reh'nomai?" Captain Rennet Panand demanded, turning to face Wrehn, his good humor gone.
"Stand easy, Captain Rennet Panand Fett," Wrehn said, in Mando'a, smiling and sighing her great relief, "That's my subcontractor. Thank the stars! He's still here!"
"Captain, we are being hailed by the warship," a communications technician reported.
Rennet Panand looked at Wrehn expectantly.
"I'll take the call, here," Wrehn decided.
A blue skinned officer with precisely trimmed white hair appeared on holo over the communications station in the bridge.
"Yehw'reh'nomai," the Chiss officer said, in a not friendly tone.
"Erok'eple'romai," Wrehn replied, with a slight tremor in her voice.
She fought back the lump that suddenly developed in her throat upon seeing him. She knew him, but his cold eyes would not acknowledge that he knew her. She was not expecting to see him. When she negotiated with the broker to hire the heavy cruiser and its dropships, she had no idea which starship she would get, only that it was going to have enough space for her troops and that the battle cruiser and dropships would all be stealth capable.
"You're almost two galactic standard weeks late," the Chiss officer said, speaking in Cheunh, "I was beginning to think that your deposit was a gift."
"That deposit is no gift," Wrehn replied in Mando'a.
The Chiss officer shook his head, expressing a look of disdain, while Rennet Panand, looked quizzically at Wrehn, wondering what that was about.
"I did not understand," the Chiss officer confessed, still speaking in Cheunh, then requesting, "Repeat your transmission."
"Then let us speak a language we can all understand," Wrehn said, speaking Galactic Basic, in a mild rebuke to the Chiss officer, "Galactic Basic seems to work pretty good for that purpose."
The Chiss officer's cold eyes barely changed, but that change made his eyes become colder.
"I can get my people to your hanger bays aboard Mandalorian transports," Wrehn said, getting to business, "There will be six transports. Please, send docking instructions so that they will dock in the correct hanger bays."
"I can accept your transports vone at a time," the Chiss officer countered.
"He thinks we want to take ship," Rennet Panand said, jeeringly in Mandalorian accented Basic. Then laughing, he added, "Perhaps we are feared, even here, in blue skin space."
"I am Kapitan Erok'eple'romai," the Chiss officer said, ignoring the childish taunt, "It ist a pleasure to meet you, Kapitan."
Erok'eple'romai's core name was Kepler.
"I am Captain Rennet Panand Fett. Pleasure is yours," he replied, meaning to mock the Chiss officer, and knowing the Chiss knew he'd meant to mock him.
Commander Chattef Tarnnar Fett kept silent, but his face developed a smirking sneer at how well the captain delivered his barb.
"Vould you let six strange dropships full of unknown troops land in your landing bays?" The Chiss challenged.
"I do, many times," Rennet Fett replied, thinking of all of the Mandalorians he'd done business with in such fashion.
As Rennet Panand prepared to crack a joke at the Chiss officer's expense, Chattef Tarnnar settled his face into the palm of his hand. His captain had unthinkingly set himself up.
"Zen I shall send my transports, to your hanger bays in vone hour," Captain Kepler declared, "und you von't know if zey are loaded vith Chiss troops or not. Ist zat acceptable?"
Rennet Fett realized he'd been had, but couldn't back out, or he'd lose face.
Chattef Tarnnar sighed quietly, realizing his captain lost that exchange.
"Let them come. We weell be ready to welcome them," he said, darkly.
The Chiss captain gave a tiny smirk as he nodded his head acknowledging the Mandalorian's challenge. His holographic image was gone.
"Captain," Wrehn requested, in Mando'a, as though nothing were amiss, "please make room for his dropships in your hangers, so that my troops can load up."
"Yes, of course," Rennet Panand replied, sourly.
"Ship's comm tech," Wrehn said, turning to the conscripted sailor, "Ship wide call for all Clan Sharratt warriors to stage their gear and equipment in the landing bays for transport off ship. We'll depart in one hour."
The Mandalorian communications technician looked to his ship's captain who nodded his approval. The call was made on the ship's overhead speaker system. The captain walked to the comms station and made the next overhead call himself.
"All dropships, to be moved to the berthing side of the hanger bays. Clear the hanger bay decks and make room for guest dropships to land. Increase security to repel boarding parties, precautionary measures, only."
He repeated his orders over the ship's overhead call system and then stood back and turned to look at Wrehn.
"I had better be shocked to my core at the galaxy wide news event when whatever it is you do happens."
"Oh! You will be!" Wrehn said, adding with a bitter chuckle, "If I survive to see the news, I'll be shocked, too."
Captain Rennet Panand and his executive officer, Commander Chattef Tarnnar briefly exchanged glances at her borderline defeatist statement.
"Does she expect to fail, or to die?" the captain asked himself.
"May the gods of war bless your endeavor, Grand Champion of The Great Hunt!" the XO prayed.
"May the gods of war grant you success, Great Hunt Champion," the captain said, adding his prayer.
Thank you, both," Wrehn said, before turning to walk out of the bridge.
Wrehn left the bridge, making her way to her stateroom. She had to pack her things.
"Captain," Chattef Tarnnar said, "I'll go to the hanger bays to be sure everything is in order."
"Very well, XO," Rennet Panand acknowledged.
In her stateroom, Wrehn packed her belongings, which wasn't very much, and made her way down the passageway, lugging her duffel bag. She met the members of her crew, who'd decided to wait for her in the passageway in Officers' Country.
"Vindis and Calaverous already took off to the hanger bay," Gault reported, "They were all Sithed up in their armor when they walked past a while ago."
"They say anything to you?" Wrehn asked, curious.
"Nope," Mako chirped in reply, adding, "They looked worked up about something, though."
"They're probably getting mentally ready for the big day," Gault suggested.
Wrehn and her crew walked to the ship's stores, to the section where their equipment, armor, and weapons were stored. There, they changed out of their civilian attire and into their armor, storing their personal effects in the crates which previously held their weapons and their armor.
"I'm gonna remind you of your options," Wrehn decided to give them another chance to back out of the mission, "You can skip out of this job. I'll pay you a hundred thousand credits. If you stay, I'll pay you fifty million each."
"You're getting three trillion," Gault complained, quite displeased, "You're only giving us fifty million?!"
"Yeah, Boss," Mako chimed in, a look of austere disapproval marking her features, "I can understand when you want to scrimp and save on the others, but we're practically your family. How can you be so cheap with us?"
"Fine," Wrehn said, sourly giving in to the criticism, "I'll give you a hundred million each, and that's final."
Gault shrugged, thinking that she should have paid them more, but he knew that further negotiations with Wrehn would be a pointless endeavor.
"Well, at least our jobs won't be too difficult," Gault said, still fuming over Wrehn's final offer. Yet, he tried to put a positive spin on it, "All we gotta do is stay on the dropship and don't let them take off without picking up the troops."
"Warriors," Torian corrected.
"Troops, warriors, soldiers, fighters, combatants, mercenaries," Gault said, in his rebuttal, "in the end they're all the same thing."
"Can I switch out with one of the Sharratt scrubs and get out and fight?" Skadge asked, looking and sounding disappointed.
"No, Skadge, you can't," Wrehn told him, then to her crew, "Alright, team. Let's get moving."
Stepping through the huge entryway from the passageway into the hanger bay, Wrehn watched the last of Clan Sharratt's warriors, lined up and loading onto the Chiss made stealth dropships. She found Ymmiir overseeing the remaining few dozen warriors boarding the dropships.
He spotted Wrehn and her crew and pointed to the dropship she was to board with her team. Ymmiir didn't ask why, and it wasn't important to him, but the crew of that dropship were specifically instructed to pick Wrehn up. Ymmiir didn't want the Sith with his warriors, either, so it made a convenient excuse for him to dump the Sith onto Wrehn.
"Champion of Great Hunt will go on that ship," he'd told the Sith lords when they'd arrived, "You shall ride with Champion."
The Sith lords kept silent as they made their way to the dropship.
"Thank The Force. It won't be crowded," Calaverous whispered to Vindis, who nodded agreement.
Wrehn and her crew immediately turned towards the dropship which Ymmiir pointed out. Mako lagged behind as she struggled, pushing a gravsled pallet jack, loaded with a pallet full of crates.
"Who decided that I have to have to lug all of this crap?!" Mako groused to herself.
Mako conveniently forgot that Skadge had complained about being the one to always do the hard manual labor, and that it was she who challenged him.
"It can't be that hard," she'd said at the time, "I'll bet even I could do it."
"Alright, Mako," Skadge had declared at the time, "If you can lug it all the way to the hanger bay on your own, I won't complain about it no more."
The gravsled pallet jack, with its pallet loaded up with all of their crates filled with their clothing and other gear turned out to be more than she thought she could handle. Sure, the pallet jack levitated above the deck, but it was still heavy to push and pull, and once it got moving and built up momentum, it was difficult to get it to steer or to stop it.
"Which one of you lugs decided to pack his entire personal weight training set in their crate?" Mako groused, to no one in particular.
The cybernetically enhanced petite woman fumed at herself. Mako debated with herself on whether Skadge had actually tricked her into doing his job for him, or if she had blundered and tricked herself into doing his work.
Meanwhile, as Wrehn neared the ramp underneath the hull of the Chiss made dropship, she found herself increasingly doubtful about the design.
The dropship looked heavily armored, which was nice. Yet, it sat high on tall reinforced landing struts, which was odd. The ramp was underneath the hull where the engine compartment was. The ramp entrance faced to the back of the ship.
So, one had to enter from the rear facing ramp. However, since the engine exhaust was there, one had to enter from the side of the dropship, at the bottom of the ramp. Otherwise, the engine exhaust would cook the fool who approached from behind the ship.
Wrehn didn't like that at all. It also made the ramp unnecessarily steep. Running up and down the ramp might cause someone to stumble and possibly take a nasty fall. It also meant that one could not exit and go straight back, because the engine exhaust would cook the fool who ran out behind the engine exhaust.
The twin engines were clustered together at the rear of the ship, above and aft of the ramp. This meant that the engines took up space that could have been used for troops. In order to load a similar number of troops, compared to Imperial and Mandalorian dropship designs, this ship model had a longer hull length than most of those other models.
With Mandalorian and Imperial designs, the engines were mounted above the aft part of the ship, above the troop compartment, not behind it. As a result, the Imperial and Mandalorian made dropships were much shorter and allowed for troops to run up and down a shallow ramp from the back of the dropship. When the ramps dropped, an exhaust deflector also deployed to angle the exhaust up and away from troops boarding and exiting on the ramp.
In the case of this particular Chiss dropship model, access to the engines, for maintenance, was behind a sound proofed, removable armored bulkhead at the back of the troop compartment. This meant that engine maintenance had to be done from within the troop compartment. The only other way to access the engines, for major maintenance or repairs, was to remove the engine entirely, pulling it out from the back.
She didn't like the design one little bit. She was very critical of what she saw, but she reminded herself that the important thing was that it was a stealth infiltration dropship.
"I guess I can't get too picky about how the thing was designed if it can get the job done," Wrehn thought, still skeptical.
Wrehn, helped by Torian, lugged a crate from the pallet, up the ramp and into the troop compartment. Gault helped Mako, and Skadge, being what he was, didn't need any help bringing two crates up the ramp by himself.
Inside, she found Vindis and Calaverous already inside, seated at the very front of the troop compartment. So the Sith lords sat facing one another, conversing. The seats in the troop compartment all faced inboard with a noticeable gap between the seat backs and the bulkhead. Wrehn found that entirely disconcerting.
"What if the ship gets smacked? The seats might flop around and smack into the bulkheads!" she thought with great disapproval.
However, a closer examination of how the seats were installed caused her to reconsider. Each seat was mounted on four very solid posts to the deck. The two rear posts ran all the way up the seat backs, making the seat backs very solid. Additionally, in between each seat, were horizontal metal rods that connected the front and rear corners of each seat to the seat next to it. This made each row of seats into a solid unit.
The meaning of the gap behind each seat became apparent to Wrehn when the load master directed her and her team to carefully set their equipment crates, ammo and munition boxes, and other gear into special compartments set on both sides of the troop compartment, behind the seats. The load master then went about adjusting their crates, boxes, and gear in the special compartments.
Meanwhile, Wrehn and her team had all strapped in to their seats. Wrehn didn't know why. Maybe it was instinct, but her crew gravitated towards the back of the troop compartment away from the Sith lords. Wrehn had chosen to sit beside Mako, just because.
"She is definitely enjoying her conversation with Calaverous," Mako observed of Vindis to Wrehn, speculating, "Maybe it's love."
"It's kind of hard to tell with Sith," Wrehn replied, joking, "Maybe they're telling each other their favorite ways to kill Jedi."
Mako snorted on hearing that.
The load master walked up the isle checking the seat restraints of her passengers as she went. When she checked Vindis' and Calaverous' seat restraints, the red skinned Sith Pureblood gave the blue skinned Chiss woman such a cold look. Calaverous seemed to tolerate her presence, but he didn't offer her any smiles. In fact, he didn't even look at her. Wrehn thought about his very friendly and charming demeanor from her interactions with him from before, and looked at his current behavior.
"Yeah," Wrehn thought, "They're Sith alright, and I definitely can't turn my back on that guy. He might stab it."
The load master, wearing a full helm with a respirator covering most of her face, sat beside Wrehn and strapped herself in. Only her eyes were visible. She spoke into the microphone integrated into the respirator.
"All is set, raise and seal the ramp," she said in Cheunh, the Chiss language.
That was another difference in Chiss design philosophy, Wrehn realized. Imperial and Mandalorian designs required the load master, or the crew chief, to raise and seal the ramp in addition to physically and visually inspect its sealed and locked condition. In this case, however, it was the pilots who performed this function, remotely, from the flight deck.
"They must reeeally trust their ramps to lock and seal properly, every time," Wrehn thought, disapprovingly, "You'd think the load master would at least look at the ramp to be sure the seal was tight."
Wrehn then noticed the empty load master's seat at the front of the troop compartment beside the doorless entry to the cockpit.
"That's how my people will have access to the flight crew to make sure they stay on the ground to pick us up after we're done," she thought.
Taking a second look at the load master's seat, Wrehn wondered why she hadn't sat there instead.
"Why are you sitting here?" she asked in Cheunh.
"Did you see the way those Sith were looking at me?" the load master replied, also in the Chiss language, "I've heard stories that they hate and kill aliens if it pleased them to do so. You seem to be familiar with them, are the stories true?"
Wrehn looked at her own cobalt blue Chiss skinned hands, and then at her crew. Gault was a bright red skinned Devaronian, Skadge was a huge musclebound Houk, looking something like a Hutt, but with arms and legs, and with olive green and mud brown mottled skin. The only Humans were Torian and Mako, and Mako was heavily enhanced with electronic cybernetics, which were mostly hidden from view, under her hair.
"We're still alive, but she sure hates talking to us," Wrehn thought, before answering the load master, "I guess there's some truth to it, but things might be changing for the better. Ever since the Dark Council started granting Aliens Imperial citizenship, things have started to get a little better for them."
"I also hoped you vould grant me some of your time und allow me to speak vith you," the load master said, this time in Chiss accented Basic, "to ask you some questions about yourself."
"I guess I don't mind," Wrehn said, starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable with the way the young Chiss woman was looking at her. To herself, Wrehn thought, "Damn! For a Chiss, she sure is forward!"
Wrehn remembered, from her youth, that Chiss were private and reserved people, not ones to openly pry into other Chiss' business. Between close family members, and very close friends, it was natural, but curiosity from strangers was almost unheard of.
"I am a strange one, though," Wrehn confessed to herself, "She probably wants to know what kind of crazy nut case I am."
Wrehn had been living a decidedly un-Chiss-like life. Whenever she came across other Chiss, they always regarded her as a unique curiosity. Some couldn't help themselves and had to ask her, in Chiss standards, prying questions.
Wrehn felt the ship's movements and realized she couldn't hear the engines.
"Wow!" Wrehn exclaimed, excitedly, "The sound insulation is pretty damned good! I can't hear the engines at all!"
"Zhe engines are especially engineered for silent operation," the load master explained, proudly, "Yet, zey are maintenance intensive, requiring new parts after ten flights. After eight hundred flights, zeh engines must be removed und completely rebuilt. After six thousand flights, zeh engines are decommissioned und new vones must take zeir place.
"Zey vill not hear us," the youthful Chiss woman continued to explain, pride oozing from her tone, "und zey vill not know vee are present until zeh ramp drops und your varriors come charging out."
"That's better than Imperial stealth dropships," Vindis thought, a bit amazed. She reflected from personal experience, "Ours have to drop stealth before letting the Black Ops teams off, and you can just barely start to hear their engines from within a hundred meters."
"No wonder hiring you guys was so damned expensive," Wrehn replied, impressed, "I thought I was getting ripped off, but your heavy cruiser was one of the only few that also came with stealth dropships available in a packaged deal.
"You guys ever do work for the Sith Empire?" Wrehn asked out of curiosity.
"Vee do not speak of our business dealings involving other clients, nor do vee disclose who may, or who may not, have been our clients," the load master said, woodenly, as though it were a well practiced canned response.
"Damn, you're right," Wrehn said, feeling foolish, "That's my policy, too. I should have known better. Sorry for asking."
The Chiss Ascendancy was made up of many powerful houses, allied to form a single empire, which they called the Ascendancy. Each house had its own military. Some houses were more powerful than others and thus held more sway and could therefor inform Chiss Ascendancy policy.
House Omai was not so powerful, and thus held little sway. However, they were a growing power and could not be dismissed so easily. As an example, they were called upon frequently by the Ascendancy for the use of their warships, and of their elite special operations forces. House Omai had conducted many extremely difficult covert special operations for the Ascendancy elite throughout the galaxy.
"You're name, Yehw'reh'nomai," the load master asked, "Are you really a member of House Omai?"
Wrehn knew that eventually someone from among the Chiss was going to ask, so she resigned herself to say something briefly.
"My father trained me from when I was a little kid in the military arts," Wrehn said, beginning her story.
Immediately she realized that everyone in the troop compartment could hear her and had become riveted to what she was about to say. This would be the first time anyone from her crew would hear about her past life.
"By the time I was in my early teens," Wrehn continued her story, suddenly feeling a bit self conscious, "I could more than hold my own in the use of weapons and tactics, but it was still just a game to me, and it was just an excuse for me to connect with my father.
"One day, my family got news that he was killed in combat during a covert operation that had gone wrong. This news broke me. I realized that I didn't want to die, and I missed my father so…," Wrehn trailed off, her voice nearly cracking, which surprised her greatly.
She didn't expect to get so emotional. She hadn't felt that way about the loss of her father in a very long time.
"Maybe 'cause I haven't thought about him in a long while, either," she told herself, wondering if she should feel guilt.
"You realized that you didn't want to die, and you missed your dad. Soooo…?" Gault said, prompting her to continue.
"Shush! What's wrong with you? Don't interrupt her!" Mako chided the Devaronian.
Wrehn gave a small chuckle at Mako's almost panicky admonishment to Gault. As though Mako feared the interruption would cause Wrehn to stop telling her tale.
"So, I ran away from home," Wrehn confessed, watching the young Chiss woman's eyes take on a look of sorrow, becoming watery, "My family pretty much expected me to take over my father's role as the armsman of our family. They wanted me to lead a special operations team like he did when I got older. I didn't want that, though. It was just me and my father playing, not me training, I told myself. So, I ran away, scared."
"Wait a minute!" Mako said, as though she'd just been hit by an epiphanous moment, "You're Yehw'reh'nomai. The captain of this ship is Erok'eple'romai. Both of your names end with Omai. Is Omai your family name?"
"You figured it out, Mako!" Wrehn replied, as though making a joke.
"Now, look at who's interrupting," Gault said, teasing Mako.
"Yeah, I used to be a respectable member of House Omai," Wrehn continued, explaining, "and Erok'eple'romai is my father's eldest brother."
"He's your uncle?!" Gault asked, flummoxed at what he'd heard, "Your uncle owns that stealth heavy cruiser we're headed for?"
"House Omai owns it," Wrehn corrected, "but he's been entrusted with its command."
"And your family is rich!" Gault exclaimed, teasing Wrehn, "Say, you can have a little family reunion, get reacquainted and catch up on old times, get a little bit of that inheritance."
"Nah," Wrehn said, dismissing the notion as a joke, "Heh! Heh! Nah, I disgraced my father's memory when I ran away from home. I'm just another customer as far as Erok'eple'romai is concerned. You know, business is business, and credits are credits.
"Plus, they probably think I'm a lowlife, anyway," she continued, suddenly feeling the guilt strike her core, "Because of what I did, my mom and little sister were disgraced and were probably pushed away from the table, so to speak, disowned by House Omai."
"You don't know if zat ist true!" the load master insisted.
"Yeah, I don't know if that's true, but that's how the Chiss are," Wrehn said, feeling touched that the young woman seemed to care, then sadly adding, "It's customary. I disgraced my family as a coward who would not take up my father's role."
The young woman tilted her head down, casting her sad eyes to the deck of the transport.
"You ran away from home, because you vere scared of becoming zeh armsman of your family, but here you are, preparing to go on a military operation," the load master said, as though trying to prove that Wrehn was not a coward. Then she asked rhetorically, "Vhy? Vhy take on a profession zat involves zeh use of arms und great violence if it scared you so?" concluding triumphantly, "See? You are no coward!"
Wrehn looked down at the deck of the troop compartment, and realized she was feeling shame.
"I was hungry," she confessed, ashamed, "hungry, and homeless. I needed to earn credits. It was all I knew how to do. So, I started working as an armed escort for a small time gangster in the lower levels of Coruscant. That's where I ran away to. I ran to Coruscant."
"You were a young girl," Gault interrupted, amazed, "How'd you land a job as a bodyguard?"
"I was young; I was pretty, and I was a homeless runaway," Wrehn said, shrugging her shoulders. Then suddenly laughing as though it was a funny memory, she added, "The Boss' thugs thought they were gonna snag me off the streets and turn me into a slave girl. Maybe sell me off to some Hutt crime boss on Tatooine or something.
"Boy were they wrong!" she said, chuckling some more, "I out ran those clowns, tripped them up, smacked a couple of them good with a broken wooden pole some rich scrub threw in the trash heap in an alley, and when I finally disarmed one of them, used his own blaster to start picking them off.
"How does a broken wooden pole denote wealth?" Vindis asked, incredulous, laughing at the idea.
Wood on Coruscant is an incredibly rare, incredibly expensive material that is imported from off world," Wrehn explained, "Everything on Coruscant is made from metal, plasticine, and some kind of glass or other. Natural wood, and natural fiber textiles are as valuable as gold on Coruscant.
"You can buy the latest synthetic fiber fashions all day long," she explained, "but the minute you try buying a natural fiber fabric handkerchief, get ready to mortgage your house and put down one of your kids as collateral for a loan to pay for it," she greatly exaggerated.
"Any way, the next day," Wrehn said, continuing her story, "I was at a food stall trying to convince the owner to hire me for a job washing his pots and pans," Wrehn said, a faraway look in her eyes, "The Boss walked right up to the food stand like he was gonna order something. The food stall guy started shaking like a leaf. That's when I looked next to me and saw him looking down at me with a smile like a nexu.
"'Don't run, little lady,' he told me, 'I'm not gonna hurt you,' he said to me, 'I heard what you did to my boys the other day, and I came here looking for a mean woman, all scarred up, a pirate patch covering one of her eyes, and armed with an assault vibrostaff.' The boss looked across the road.
"I looked across the road, too, and there they were, the guys I was running from. 'This the one? You boys, sure it's this little lady, here?' he asked 'em. 'Yeah, Boss,' one of his guys said, sounding miserable and all. He was so embarrassed!" Wrehn laughed at the recollection, before resuming her tale.
"The Boss looked at me and asked, 'Where'd you learn to fight so good, little lady? They told me, you even killed a couple of my boys,' I told him, my father was an armsman, and he taught me how to fight so that I could be an armsman, but I ran away after he got killed in battle," Wrehn said, shaking her head, embarrassed, "Yeah. I was so scared, I just told him.
"Anyway, he calls one of his men over, and says to me, 'Little lady, if you can take him down, I'll give you a job working for me.' I told him, I'm hungry, I can't fight when I'm hungry. So he tells the food stall guy, 'give the little lady, here, something to eat. She needs to fight for her life, but don't give her anything too heavy. I don't want the little lady getting sluggish.'
"So the food stall guy gives me a bowl of stew. The guy started stretching, cracking his knuckles, and started walking towards me," Wrehn said, grinning, "When he got close enough, I threw the hot stew into his face. Then I gave him a side kick, giving it everything I had, into his solar plexus. He doubled over and I gave him a front kick to his face. I put everything, I mean everything, into smashing his nose with the bottom of my boot, but I missed his face and kicked him in his throat with the toe of my boot, instead.
"Crushed his larynx. I was so scared, I thought the Boss was gonna have me killed for killing his guy," Wrehn shook her head in disbelief, "The Boss told me, 'Don't worry about it, tough girl. I was gonna fire him anyway. You got a job as my bodyguard, tough girl.'
"Turns out, he didn't need me as a bodyguard," Wrehn said, "He'd be conducting business, and if someone crossed him, he'd tell me to do stuff, 'Wrehn, I don't like the way he looked at me. Bust his knee cap. Wrehn, I don't think he'd make a good father. Make it so that he won't have kids no more. Wrehn, he needs to pay attention better, give him a little pain to wake him up.'
"A year went by and he sent me out to get a guy who owed him a bunch of credits," Wrehn said, "When I came back with the Rodian, the Boss looked at me and says, 'Wrehn, you just got a promotion. You're my bounty hunter, now. That gets you a nice pay raise.' That's how I got into this line of work."
"How'd you get away from your boss?" Mako, in suspense, asked, "When Braden found you, you was an independent operator."
"So, I got lucky," Wrehn answered, "Three years, later, I was seventeen, and I was away on a job bringing in a scumbag who made off with the Boss' shipment of monkey-lizards. When I got back, the Boss and his crew had been wiped. I let my bounty go, nobody else was paying any credits for him, and I walked away.
"Started working for myself. Built up a reputation, and then one day, when I was ninteen, Braden shows up talking about The Great Hunt and all of the credits and fame I would get, and the big credit jobs that would come my way, on and on. So, I told him I'd join."
"Und now," the load master, said, a bit in awe, "You are a champion among zeh Mandalorians, und greatly respected among zem."
Wrehn didn't say anything about it, and she couldn't understand why the load master would tear up, but she'd caught her quickly wiping her eyes.
"Plus, I'm pretty famous in a lot of other places, too," Wrehn added, tooting her own horn, while carefully studying the young Chiss woman.
"Yeah," Gault cut in, laughing, "If things go well on this job, we'll be so famous, we'll have to go into hiding the rest of our lives!"
Torian smirked, Mako chortled, Wrehn laughed, too. Skadge, on the other hand, was Skadge.
"I ain't hidin' from no one!" he declared, "Let 'em come at me. I'll pound 'em into pulp!"
"I don't need that kind of fame," Wrehn said, laughing, "but what can you do?"
"Anyway, how'd you know about her being a champion?" Skadge asked the young Chiss woman.
"Uh… Uh…" she began answering, greatly flustered, " I uh…, overheard. I overheard zeh officers talking about it."
Wrehn thought it strange, the way the young Chiss reacted to the question. However, she didn't have time to think about it too much. She felt the bump of the dropship touching down in the hanger bay of the Chiss warship.
The load master unbuckled her seat restraint and stood on her feet, quickly making her way to the front of the troop compartment.
"Unfasten your seat restraints!" she ordered.
Everyone complied.
"Stand, und face zeh ramp!" She ordered.
Everyone complied.
The ramp dropped and Wrehn caught sight of their gear quickly lowering below the deck of the transport.
"Exit, now!" the load master commanded.
Torian, Gault, Skadge, Mako, and Wrehn moved quickly, but did not run down the steep ramp. The Sith took their time, ambling down the ramp and found Wrehn and her crew already retrieving their gear from the deck of the hanger bay beneath the dropship. When they had cleared all of their gear from under the armored troop transport, Wrehn watched the ramp go back up and watched the transport lift off the deck and then glide to the far side of the bay with the other dropships.
"Would you listen to that!" Wrehn gushed, "All I could hear is a rush of air coming off of it!"
"Heck!" Skadge observed, "Even you're louder than the ship! All of that yapping!"
Gault, who was also impressed, cut in before Wrehn could counterpunch Skadge's teasing barb.
"If we were planetside, on a breezy day, we wouldn't even notice it," he said.
"The Chiss have a really good raid ship, there," Torian said, "Can hardly wait to try it out on the chancellor."
A Chiss officer in a slate grey uniform approached Wrehn.
"Velcome aboard zeh Nova Star I am Lieutenant, Trieb'ritt'anomai," she said, speaking in Basic, her accent shining through, "Your troops are being housed in zeh troop berthing quarters," she reported, "Per your request, zeir officers are being housed in separate quarters, as befitting zeir stations as junior officers, along vith your team. Also, per your request, zeh clan chief, und zeh Sith vill be quartered in quarters as befitting zeir rank as senior officers. You are our paying customer, und shall be housed in a guest stateroom."
"Trieb'ritt'anomai?" Wrehn thought about the officer's name, "That makes her core name, Britta," aloud, she replied to Britta, "Good. This is agreeable," Wrehn replied, nodding her satisfaction, adding, "We'll need a place to store our equipment, and supplies."
"Of course, zis has been arranged. Our logistical support personal shall store your gear," Britta said, and explained, "Zeh crates must be inspected for contraband. Illegal substances, such as spice shall be confiscated."
Wrehn raised an eyebrow showing her doubts.
"Have you talked this over with Clan Sharratt's officers, or with the Sith?" Wrehn asked, dubious, "I don't think you'll get away with it without causing a commotion."
"Any, who conduct zemselves in a disorderly manner shall be arrested und placed in zeh ship's brig until vee have arrived to our destination," Britta huffed, indignant.
"You better stop right, there, Lieutenant," Wrehn said forcefully, "I don't want you riling up my troops with your nonsense! Don't go around trying to start trouble with my men. You don't seem to know how Mandalorians work. You're liable to start a riot on your ship with your crap. Get me in contact with your superior officer, right now."
Britta pursed her lips, biting her tongue. She got out her communicator and contacted her superior as instructed by the customer.
"Zis is Lieutenant Trieb'ritt'anomai to Lieutenant Commander Lu'lric'homai. Zeh client strongly requests to meet vith you in landing bay Besh 5."
A long moment of silence passed, before a reply was finally given.
"*sigh* Very vell, Lieutenant. I shall be zere, shortly."
Wrehn could see how mortified the lieutenant had become with the way her superior officer answered her communications. It was as though her superior had expected that she would flub her duties.
Meanwhile, Wrehn waved at Ymmiir, beckoning to him. She walked halfway across the expansive light grey durasteel deck to meet him.
"The Chiss are going to inspect all of your gear," Wrehn told him, in Mando'a, "They are going to go through it all to search for contraband which they will confiscate."
"The nine hells they are!" the old man growled, sourly.
"Yes, wait until they try to inspect the Sith's gear. That should be a lot of fun," Wrehn said, with a snort, "In any case, I have an idea to keep honor on both sides.
Ymmiir motioned for Wrehn to explain.
"If I cannot convince the Chiss to relent and to call off the search for contraband, then perhaps we can set it up as a gear inspection. Let the warriors open and spread their gear, in an orderly fashion, and let them stand at attention. We'll let the Chiss go up and down the ranks to inspect, along with your officers. Anything the Chiss don't like, the officers can retrieve for the Chiss to inspect more closely."
"What are they searching for?" Ymmiir asked, guardedly.
"Spice, and other contraband commonly regarded as illegal in most jurisdictions," Wrehn said, as though it wasn't a big deal.
"What if they consider our battle stims and adrenals as contraband?" he asked, sourly.
"I'll challenge them in those cases and put a stop to their nonsense," she firmly declared.
"What about the Sith?" he asked.
"I'm tempted to let the dumb scrubs get smacked around by them, let them feel the pain of their stupidity," she replied, darkly, in Basic. Yet, after a moment, she had a change of heart, "Nah. I'll talk to the Sith and give them a warning, let the Sith talk to the Chiss about it. I'll try talking the Chiss out of messing with the Sith, beforehand. Try to keep 'em from messing up with the Sith."
Ymmiir spotted two Chiss officers approaching, and nodded their way. Wrehn turned about and watched as the two approached.
"Good day, Yehw'reh'nomai, I am Lieutenant Commander Lu'lric'homai," the officer said, in Chiss accented Basic, identifying himself, "You have already met Lieutenant Trieb'ritt'anomai."
"Then his core name is Ulrich," Wrehn thought to herself, before replying, "This is Clan Chief Ymmiir Sharratt," Wrehn said, "I hired his warriors to support my mission, the same as how I hired your heavy battle cruiser and stealth dropships for my mission."
"Yes, Yehw'reh'nomai, I understand zeh considerable investment you have made to fund your operations," Ulrich replied, "I certainly understand zat you do not vant anything to interfere vith zeh success of your endeavors."
"That's right," Wrehn replied, adding a threat, "If your officers do anything to wreck my mission, I'll sue House Omai for damages. This is not a small two bit job. I've invested a huge pile of credits, even hiring Sith lords for this job, and I'll be damned if you go picking fights with Clan Sharratt, or with the Sith!"
"I absolutely understand your position, Yehw'reh'nomai," Ulrich said, diplomatically, "However, vee are still in Chiss Ascendancy Space, und zere is a law zat requires us to search for und confiscate any contraband found."
"If you ask the Sith real nice," Wrehn said, "they might only cut your head off with their lightsabers. But if you try that with Mandalorians you'll start a small war in your ship!"
Ymmiir took that as his cue to speak up.
"If you put hands on equipment," he growled in his Mando'a accented Basic, "we break your hands. If you take anything, we treat you like thieves. Thieves die."
"I'll speak to Kapitan Erok'eple'romai," Ulrich said, to Wrehn and Ymmiir. Then to his subordinate officer, "Lieutenant Trieb'ritt'anomai, postpone all inspections und vait until I have orders."
"Yes, Lieutenant Commander!" she replied to her superior officer.
Ulrich turned about smartly and marched across the huge expanse that was the hanger bay on his way to the turbolifts and the ship's command bridge. Meanwhile, Britta turned about and marched her way to a formation of Chiss enlisted sailors in light grey uniforms who were, themselves, waiting for orders.