Drast Exchange

[Greybok]

Greybok had not seen the Dune Sea in months. Not since the initial missions for the Alliance had brought him to Tatooine to fight Tusken Raiders off a Jawa Sandcrawler. And he really wasn't even sure why he was here. Command had said something about picking up a prisoner from a "mutual friend" of theirs, but had proceeded not to tell Greybok who this friend was or what kind of prisoner he was picking up. It had to be a high-profile target if the higher-ups were being all hush about it.

The Wookiee stood in the designated meeting place beneath his beloved Starbird. The large, rectangular ship provided ample shade from Tatooine's grueling twin suns. Unfortunately, it offered him no protection from Twobee's whining. "Well, they've finally done it," the droid complained. "Alliance Command has sent us off to die. They finally got sick of your antics and sent us straight into an ambush. A trap. That's certainly what this is, you know? Who else but our own executioners would we be meeting out in the Dune Sea?" The droid groaned. "This is all your fault, Greybok!"

Greybok howled at the droid to shut up. Sometimes he wished that he could wear a translator around his mouth so that he could scrap the droid; but he could not find one geared towards Wookiees, so, for now, he was stuck in perpetual hell with this protocol droid. He just hoped she wouldn't offend these so-called "friends" with her incessant bickering or with her rather rude disposition. @Lucid

OOC - This takes place before the kaggath/Nar Shaddaa/Corellia business and is a pre-agreed upon prison transfer. PvP/Death/combat/shifty stuff disabled.

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

In the days following the capture of Alexandra Thul Drast, despite what Daniel had done to her, his nature had got the better of him and he had allowed the royal to wake for brief periods to shower and eat and tend to her wounds. Thanks to his early first aid, her wounds had healed well and she had escaped a grisly death from infection. Despite his kindness, Daniel remained exceptionally wary of the woman, though she seemed to understand that any action on her that Daniel did not deem appropriate would result in a very swift death. And so far, she had behaved herself.

As Daniel flew his trusty ship, the Jawa Van over the bleak dunes of Tatooine towards the meeting location he couldn't help feel a little giddy. This was the home of the Jawas! They were so cool! It reminded him of scenes from Super Jawa Squad and he couldn't deal with it, especially when they flew over a sand crawler trundling its way over the sand. He forgot himself for a moment and turned to his surly and bound companion in the cockpit.

"Did you see that??" He half shouted to her, "A real, live, Sandcrawler! That's so rad!" There was an awkward silence as he remembered just who he was talking to and the tension between them. He cleared his throat and turned back to the windows in front of him. They were coming up on the meeting spot now. There was another ship already there and Daniel guided the Van towards it. He carefully set down as close to it as he dared and turned back to his traveling companion a different look on his face.

"Let's go," he said. Nudging her with the end of his violator pistol...he still didn't actually want to touch her...just in case. He walked behind her, his helmet clipped to his belt, as they headed for the boarding ramp and out into the glare of the sun beyond.

Squinting his eyes against the glare, he saw what he assumed to be their contact. Was that...a Wookiee?! Daniel's excitement was renewed again. He liked the Wookiees and after the time he had spent on Kashyyyk working with them to convert an old encampment into a Mandalorian outpost, he had decided that they were some of his favorite people in the galaxy.

He prodded Alexandra forward urgently, taking them to the great furry being. Daniel, without thought for consequence or etiquette reached out and grabbed one of the Wookiee's huge paws and pumped it enthusiastically in a oversized handshake with both of his. "It's an honor to meet you, sir!" He gushed. "This is Alexandra Thul Drast. It's so good to finally meet with you! This is fantastic!"

There followed another stunned silence and Daniel realized that perhaps he had taken the wrong tone. He awkwardly scratched the back of his head with one hand and cleared his throat. He reached instinctively for the helmet at his waist and slipped it over his head as if looking to hide behind it. However, the moment it clipped to his armor around his neck, his back straightened and his entire demeanor seemed to shift.

He stepped back and gave the Wookiee a crisp salute. "I am Daniel Solus, Al'verde of Clan Solus and Field Marshal to the Mandalorian people. As I said before, this is Alexandra Thul Drast who has been marked for her ignorance of her peoples' crimes against my people and countless others."

@Malon @Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Alexandra hadn't had much chance in of itself to be really disruptive nor did she really fancy trying anything that wasn't bound to succeed without a plan, hell without even knowing where she was going either. The best bet would be to sit and be patient and stay on her captor's good side, that way at least, her captivity wouldn't be so terrible for the time being. Daniel had been true to his word and had allowed Alex the courtesy of some level of autonomy in taking care of herself, she wasn't completely certain if it was because he was too embarrassed otherwise or if some level of guilt hung over him for what he had done.

Tatooine was very far from home and drastically unfamiliar, let alone dull and unwelcoming. Daniel had said something about a deal of sorts but the details were few and far between as to whom or how this thing was supposed to go down. Alex was quick enough to realize what kind of transaction would be taking place but for her own sake hoped that whomever Daniel had decided to pawn her off to would be less inclined to burn her too as she winced at the thought of it again.

Although Alexandra stood quietly both bound and gagged, the gag itself was proper silk from her own person and not some rubbish rag that might be found lying around which at least afforded her some level of dignity back. She was at least happy to be back in her own clothes again and despite the situation unfolding, her mind was busy at work taking in what she could register when Daniel surprised her yet again.

Her captor, this man or child, perhaps both slipped between personalities like one might change their pants in the morning. Having been largely unconscious or sleeping for most of her captivity, it was not something that she had gotten used to but the revelation added more intrigue to the situation in how she arrived here. Fortunately, he did not give her much time to idle in confusion as the pair jutted along toward the exit and out into the open where they would find a rather large hairy beast. Alex could barely react in her situation but it seemed the man who had hurt her and the one she had feared while chained up, was ...having fun? the craziness of it all would have made her laugh in confusion if she had been able to.

Alex for her part stared meekly toward the large Wookiee and his droid companion looking tiny in comparison to them. Having no weapon nor any real control over the force yet coupled with the fact that she stood in front of Greybok in chains meant that she would be best served to wait and hope that she wasn't about to be squished.

Of course as if on queue, the Mandalorian soldier snapped back into order and set about beginning the transaction.

@Malon @Lucid

 

[Greybok]

Call it a Wookiee's intuition, but Greybok got the sense this Mandalorian was pretty happy to see him. The last Mandalorian he had seen was that one he mud-wrestled back on Kashyyyk on Life Day. Beyond that, he had heard rumors that a Mandalorian clan had been helping out the Alliance. Clan Sole? Clan Sol? Clan Sold? He couldn't remember, but he was always happy to see a friendly face. Wookiees weren't always liked or trusted by the galaxy at large, so it was nice to feel welcome somewhere for once.

The big Wookiee pilot howled a greeting and shook the man's hand. His introduction as Daniel Solus cleared a few things up. Then he took a look at the prisoner. As he sized the woman up, Twobee shuffled forward and voiced what he was thinking. "Did he say 'Drast'? As in the Imperial Royal Family 'Drast'? And not just 'Drast,' either! Thul, too! That's an Alderaanian noble house, Greybok!" The protocol droid sounded beside herself with delight. "Two royal houses wrapped into one!"

Greybok was not as enthused as his droid companion. The Thuls were well-known Sith puppets and the Drasts were all scum. The only Drast Greybok even pretended to like was Alys, but that girl had proved herself to not live up to her family's historic cruelty. The Wookiee's lips curled up and he snarled at the prisoner. Part of him wanted to pluck her arms from her socket here and now, but he restrained himself. Commander Ion and Leah wanted this woman brought back alive, so that's what he intended to do.

The Wookiee barked in Daniel's direction and Twobee translated. "He's introducing himself. This is Greybok, a general in the forces to oppose the Sith Empire, and I am his protocol droid, 2B-83." The droid turned to curiously view the prisoner while listening to Greybok howl some more, and then turned back to Daniel and translated again. "He wishes to know how you came upon such a high-profile target. Members of the royal family don't cavort around in public. I'm sure it's a riveting tale!" @Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel was delighted to hear Greybok roar a greeting that the droid head on his bandoleer translated somewhat more elegantly than what the big Wookiee had said. "I know what he said," Daniel said to the droid. Perhaps Daniel was a bit...slow in other areas, but he'd always had a knack for languages and the time he had spent on Kashyyyk had been more than enough for him to pick up a decent understanding of Shyriiwook. Luckily Greybok wasn't speaking the tricky island dialect. Daniel hadn't been able to pick that one up at all. There was a smile in his voice when he spoke to the droid next. "The diplomatic rephrasing is a nice touch but wholly unneeded."

Adjusting his gaze up so he could see the massive Wookiee's face Daniel answered his question. "A group of my fellows and I had accepted a protection contract on Manaan for a pharmaceutical company during a time of civil unrest on that world. We saw it as a nice way to get a boatload of credits for not really doing much. It didn't last long though, my people don't do well with inaction." He laughed thinking of all the trouble his brothers and sisters had got themselves into recently. "One of my team sliced the civilian comm network and we were able to learn about a Sith detachment arriving at the port. We predicted their target, outnumbering them seven to three and intercepted."

Daniel paused for a second, unsure of what to say next but remembered that the Wookiees he had worked with on Kashyyyk appreciated honesty. "We surrounded them and I gave them the option to walk away. It was enough that they return to Coruscant with their mission incomplete. They didn't need to die for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This one however," he nudged Alexandra with the muzzle of his rifle, "thought that her eminence was such that she could arrange some sort of deal. Whatever, she's not the brightest. Dax shot her in the face with a stun bolt and we took her into custody."

There had followed the ugly incident aboard his ship which he didn't want to discuss. However, Daniel decided that he must own his actions and Greybok had asked for the full story, lengthy though it was. "During her custody I interrogated her and discovered a number of alarming and disgusting things. She knows nothing of the devastation the Empire has caused throughout history and she believes that it is a benevolent entity." Daniel straightened and didn't look away. "I branded her over her heart to mark her as livestock. Not worthy of anything but the necessary care so that she can live until she can serve her purpose."

@Malon @Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Alexandra stood motionless as the trio squabbled over her future like she was some kind of commodity to be bought or sold and not the person that she was to herself. This experience brought distraught upon her and mixed emotions but Alex held her composure steadily as they conversed further with the droid interjecting.

After patiently waiting for her own opportunity to speak, a simple exertion of the force and a flick of the tongue ripped the loosely fitted gag that had been preventing her from speaking and a shift in her demeanor.

"My purpose is and always has been to protect and serve the innocent against the likes of this bucket-head. He speaks of lies and atrocities but offers no proof to his claims, tortures for my ignorance of his fantasies and now offers my person unto you likely for some type of reward. No political institution is perfectly clean, but those in power often surround themselves with the wrong crowd and often ignore the greater good in search of what they feel is the right answer."

Alex straightened her posture and studied both Greybok and his protocol droid while considering her next few steps.

"I am of little importance to both the Drast's and the Thul's whilst the perfect little heir Eddard lives but you are welcome to try and demand a ransom, perhaps they will entertain the idea. If you intend to keep me as a pet,......I'd rather you kill me right now."

She didn't really mean that, of course. She didn't really know what was going on but her tough persona was all that she could cling to as she stood on the verge of breaking down.

@Malon @Lucid

Spoiler

Alex doesn't yet know that Eddard was deaded naturally

 

[Greybok]

Greybok was furious and showed his fury by shoving Twobee out of the way to square his chest with the Sith woman. It took every bit of restraint he had left in him not to spoon her eyeballs out and feed it to her. The Wookiee warrior still remembered his decades in bondage to the Sith. He still remembered the family he lost and never found. He would not hear excuses and platitudes from the seed of the family who enslaved the galaxy.

«Don't dare stand before me and speak defenses of the Empire who once shackled me in chains!» Greybok roared in Shyriiwook. The Mandalorian would understand him, but he forbade Twobee from translating. If the woman couldn't understand him, then it was her own fault. «Your Empire took me from my kin! Your Empire took me from my mate! And they forced us to work in their factories like we were their pets!» He thought back to her use of the Force and his anger made the hairs on his body stand up. He hated the Force. And she was the one who stood to feel his wrath for using it. «Use your vile magic in front of me again and I'll remove your limbs one-by-one until you cannot use it anymore!»

He turned back to Daniel. The Wookiee's rage was still in his eyes. He was having trouble fighting it back down again. His language came off in more clipped snarls and growls, indicating his irritation, when he spoke. «You did the right thing. These Sith — the Drasts, the Thuls, the whole lot of them — lord themselves over the rest of us. But it's time they know their place.» He threw one more caustic glare at Alexandra. «You have done us a great service. I will inform my superiors that you and your Clan have proven yourselves our allies.» He then pulled a small data-chip from his bandolier and handed it to the Mandalorian. «That data-chip has my personal contact information: a secure frequency to reach me at, should you need. I owe you and your people a debt for bringing to me one of the family who put my people in chains.»

«It is a debt I will not soon forget.» Greybok moved to take the woman into custody. He hoped Commander Ion punished her severely. To rid the galaxy of one more Drast would be doing it a great service. One Greybok was glad to have played a part in. @Lucid

 

[Daniel Solus (old)]

Daniel was still astonished at the woman's stupid obliviousness. It was if she had grown up in a bubble where all misdeeds and wrongdoings by the Empire had been shielded from her. Maybe she had, but that was a strange concept for a Mandalorian and a Wookiee; both members of nations and peoples who had been utterly ruined by the Empire. Though Alexandra wouldn't understand Greybok's savage roars, she didn't necessarily have to. His meaning was clear from the vehemence in his voice.

Her words and witchery brought to the surface some of the raw emotion that had fulled Daniel's rage when he branded her. He shoved the butt of his rifle savagely against the still-tender burn between her breasts. His emotionless visor doing letting to conceal how he felt. "Before I turn you over to these people, I want you to know something...if you really are just so ignorant."

He stood back from her and stared at her pained form a moment longer. "The Empire enslaved billions, murdered billions and in one single attack used their fleets to extinguish the population of an entire world. I don't know if the name Meridaas means anything to you, but it should. The people who hold you now are galvanized by that action and countless others. Just know that I'm not fabricating my claims, nor is Greybok. All the proof you need is the lengths we took to capture you and the fact that you are still alive. You are a political pawn now...and the only reason that you're not dead is because the entities in play are powerful enough to use you for their own agendas."

He turned back to Greybok and accepted his works with a nod. He took the datachip and shook one of the Wookiee's massive paws firmly. He liked Greybok and everything the being seemed to stand for. It was just as well that they were on the same side in this war. "Council General Greybok, Daniel said, using the Wookiee's full titles out of formality. "It has been an honor. I'm sure we'll meet again."

With another salute, Daniel turned and headed back to his ship. A major step to strengthening the new alliance between Mandalorians and Galactic Alliance had been taken here. By giving the GA such a high value captive weakened Mandalore's stake on the galactic stage, but it would strengthen the Galactic Alliance. Underground and not as ferocious as the Mandalorians, perhaps they would be able to make the plays to fully exploit having Alexandra in their cages. To Daniel it didn't matter who took the fight as long as that the people were left free to chose the futures for themselves.

He didn't want to govern, that was the GA's cause. He wanted to liberate so that worlds would once again have the right to chose for themselves. Great steps had been taken to bring him to such a place and he felt the chance at last within his grasp. If only his fellow Mandalorians could be made to see it the same way.

@Malon
@Xorism

 

[Alexandra Thul Drast]

Defiance was hard to come by and hold when you had a large angry Wookiee barking in your face in their native tongue that you can't fathom what kind of obscenities or threats that he surely was hurling her way.

Alex stood still meekly holding her arms forward in their arrested position and eyes locked on Greybok while desperately trying to hold onto her own composure in spite of the frightening events unfolding before her. Alexandra had clearly underestimated her opponents once again or perhaps there never had been any intention of a real chance of negotiations, at least for her.

The Mandalorian seemed content with his own deeds but an animal can only remain in control of its emotions for so long, as the unexpected and sudden attack landed squarely into Alex's chest and pummeled the still tender flesh below. A flash of rage burst forth and mixed uncontrollably with the strong emotional concoction of fear and uncertainty to create one thoroughly bruised and confused drastling as Alex was pushed back a few steps with her head falling down to catch her breath.

A life of privilege and isolation and the natural effects of propaganda that littered all avenues of the Empire had limited the alternative opinions and facts that many reasonable persons in the galaxy would have had access to in order to form their own logical conclusions on the matter of things. Alex had been shielded from the worst of it all and shunned anything different as wrong and refused to believe otherwise to protect the image that she held of her own little universe.

She wasn't naive to the point of assuming everything was perfect within the state, her work made that clear enough that it wasn't but in her mind, the situation was escalating but the solution was for the right minds to make their way to the top and reform the empire, rather than its destruction.

Daniel belittled her with his venomous lies and slander that assaulted Alex's precious little world as the accusations swirled around in her head, she didn't believe him after what he had done to her but the mental images that she had been given were there to stay and torment her as did the physical scars that he had borne upon her flesh.

To be a pawn in a larger game was not something unfamiliar to Alexandra as this had been her entire life up until this point but Daniel's other comments about why they went out of their way for her felt particularly vile and even if she didn't entirely believe him, she could feel the conviction in his voice and it struck a chord.

Falling to her knees Alex drilled her gaze into the loose, coarse sands below while trying to make sense of her own situation and her place. So busy in her own thoughts she wouldn't even notice being exchanged into the rebels custody for some time after which Daniel, the man who had found more than one way to torture her would be long gone.

In her current mindset she could of course only show disdain for the man and if the opportunity presented itself, would she revel in the chance to inflict her own version of his cruel punishment upon his own person.

But who knew what the future might hold for the pair.

@Malon @Lucid

 

[Greybok]

After shaking hands with the Mandalorian, Greybok picked the girl up off of her feet and began to drag her towards the Starbird. Before he left, he cast a glance over his shoulder to Daniel Solus. In Shyriiwook, he said, «Until we meet again, Daniel of Clan Solus. Fight well in the meantime.»

The Wookiee beckoned for his droid to follow him and then began to drag the prisoner to her chamber on the ship. She would be locked inside and monitored until they got back to base. He personally hoped Commander Ion had something horrible in store for her. He was still angry and bristling at their earlier confrontation, but he restrained himself well enough to fly his ship properly. All of this had renewed his conviction to fight the Empire and free the galaxy. If even they didn't know what they were doing to harm the galaxy's citizens, then they were more unfit to rule than he had originally thought—and that was saying a lot.

Reaching the planet's upper atmosphere, the Wookiee smuggler finished making his calculations and then made the jump to lightspeed. After today's events, he was eager to get home and see his "family" again. The family who gave him hope that he would see his real family again someday.

The End​