Open Coruscant Little Womp Rat, Big Desert

[Pidge Batana]

Things were really not running smoothly for Pidge Batana. In fact, very few occurrences could make the situation worse. She had never thought her job would involve real danger, yet here she was cornered by two thugs with blasters pointed at her head. It was certainly not the polite, legal behavior she expected from her customers. It was only her second year running her tech business underground, and yet she had thought she was prepared for being conned. Apparently, she was not. The two men, one human and one mirilan, were supposed to be her customer, Zed Rizzole and Mar Lipman. Except that those were likely not their true names, and they were trying to rob her rather than buy from her.

The one supposedly named Zed pressed his blaster closer. “Hand that chip over. Now. This is your last chance. “ Pidge inhaled deeply and slowly drew something out from under her vest. She quickly scanned the area for any security holo is recorders. There were none, conveniently enough for the thieves. Quickly now, she finished drawing out her blaster. However, she had no time to shoot. Mar had seen her and given her a stun shot straight to the chest before she could aim. Pidge collapsed.

Pidge’s head throbbed and she felt as if every nerve in her body had been fried. She felt cold duracrete under her cheek. As she gingerly shifted to seated position, she took stock of her surrounding. She still had her blaster, somehow, but the 250 credit chip was gone, as was her wallet. A sharp pain had shot up her left leg. By the strange angle it was positioned, she assumed it was broken. Trying to straighten it made her vision wash red. Well, I suppose the thugs didn’t want me running off getting the security.

Pidge tried not to think too hard about the fact she was alone, helpless, and stranded as she pulled herself forward towards the street desperately on her elbows.

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

The soft clanking of Varia's combat boots echoed off the metal walls as she made her way down a narrow alley. The only other sound was the distant speeders on the main thoroughfare, the noises from a hundred different engine types melted into a soft, omnipresent buzz. The twi'lek held a datapad in her right hand, pouring over the contents, while her left hand sat on R3-N2's clear head dome. The astromech led her down the dingy street, faithfully steering her around crates, debris, and questionable puddles.

While the upper levels of Coruscant represented the political and cultural capital of the galaxy, the lower levels were as dangerous as any lawless planet in the outer rim. While Varia wasn't watching her surrounding, she felt confident in R3 to alert her to any threats that may appear. That's why, when her droid made a sudden, high-pitched trill, she looked up immediately to see what was wrong. Varia was confused at first, not seeing any enemies in front of her. She noticed her astromech wasn't looking forward, but down a corridor that stretched out to her left. She followed R3's gaze and saw what he had noticed.

At the other end of the hallway, a teal twi'lek was dragging herself along the ground. She was crawling away from Varia, towards the sounds of the speeders. The datapad was replaced in her jacket pocket as Varia sprinted the 30 yards to her downed kin. She skidded to a halt, followed shortly by R3 who came charging behind her. When she saw the twi'lek's awkwardly bent leg Varia winced, it was obviously broken. She turned her attention to the twi'lek's face. "I'm here to help." She said, giving her a reassuring smile.


@Kestrel

 

[Pidge Batana]

Pidge was just about to give up hauling herself to the street and take a break, maybe administer a medpac. Just as she paused for a breather, a soft voice called out in a language she’d only ever heard at home. A woman had run up behind her and offered her help. Pidge was immediately comforted by the familiar language of her childhood and she relaxed a bit. She was in no condition to fight off any adversaries and she was relieved she didn’t have to.

Looking up at the Twi’lek, Pidge croaked out a quiet “Thank you” in basic. She understood Twi’leki, but had not worked to keep up speaking it. Hopefully the other Twi’lek knew basic. She noticed a droid, similar to her own R4, Rat. “It would be wonderful if we found somewhere a bit cleaner to chat”

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

Varia nodded. "That's a good idea." She said, following the example of the other woman and switching to Basic. Varia bent down and put the twi'lek's left arm around her shoulders, helping the woman up onto her good leg. "I'm Varia by the way, and this is R3-N2." She said gesturing to the white and green astromech as it rolled up to the stranger's right side.

Varia's fiery eyes looked up and down the corridor ahead of them. She had never been to this particular corner of Coruscant, and had no idea were the closest place of respite might be. "Any suggestions?" She asked, giving the woman a curious look.

 

[Pidge Batana]

Pidge hobbled up with the help of the lady, Varia. “Beautiful droid. I have my own! I have to say, I have experience with droids and if you ever need help, let me know. I owe you”. Her leg was hanging painfully and she looked her arm around Varia’s shoulder as she hopped forward. The alleyway was thick with the stench of garbage and speeder fuel. She fought back nausea and pulled a medpack out of her vest, injecting it into her thigh. Immediately, she felt her heart beat faster and a tingling warmth spread through her body. Her leg would remain broken until she got it set, but at least the pain could be mitigated.

“To be honest, I’m not around here much. I live on a different level, but I was supposed to meet my customers here. I do know a place though, Benno’s Cantina. Can I treat you to a drink?”

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

Varia supported the woman gingerly as they began to hobble their way through the musty corridor. The sound of the twi'leks' footfalls drummed out a lopsided cadence that echoed of the cold metal walls. As she looked down at the woman, Varia guessed she was a bit younger than herself and she couldn't help but feel protective over the fellow twi'lek. She had strong bonds of family in her blood and those feelings often extended to other members of her species. R3 let out an excited woop when the woman suggested going to Benno's. Varia looked down at the woman's leg then back up at her face, a bemused smile on her face. "I won't say no to a friendly drink." She replied. "Though, I usually like to know the names of my drinking partners."

 

[Pidge Batana]

Pidge smirked. “Pidgelle Batana, but call me Pidge please. I must say, the majority of the residents in this area would’ve probably just left me. Thank you for helping me. Sometimes my job gets a bit dangerous but this is certainly a first. Normally it’s just bar fights, that sort of thing.“ She grimaced, partially because of the pain partially because of the thought that had just occurred to her. “There was some chaos last time I was at Benno’s, so hopefully they’ll have me back. Anyway, I know very little about this sister twi’lek who just rescued me. Why were you wandering the alleyways?”

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

Varia let out a nervous laugh. "Um, well, this is gonna sound a little weird but I come down here to think. I grew up on starships so the tight corridors, constant drone of engines, and smell of burning fuel... it focuses my mind." She gave a small shrug. "I realize it's not exactly the safest place on Coruscant." Varia glanced down at Pidge's leg. "Perhaps I'll pick a less hazardous path next time." She looked back up, giving the woman a smile.

As they continued along, R3's clear head dome rotated to face the pair of twi'lek, and he made a low series of beeps full of curiosity and a bit of apprehension. Varia turned to Pidge with a look of concern. "Yeah, are you sure this... previous history at Benno's isn't gonna lead to any trouble? I doubt I need to remind you of your current condition."

 

[Pidge Batana]

Pidge feigned shock. “I’m one of their best customer, of course they’d welcome me... Seriously though, we’ll probably be okay. I’ll pop on my hood and be a very well behaved customer.“ She stuck out her arm to hail a speeder. When one finally pulled up, driven by a rather cross droid, she boarded and immediately took a seat. Taking a deep breath, she braced her leg against the speeder door and prodded with her fingers, slowly shifting the bones in her leg back into place. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes, despite the pain relief from the medpack. Atleast the hard part was over. Now she just needed a brace.

Pidge let herself get caught up in the whirring traffic of the vast city as she rose, the snippets of conversations and music she caught as transports zipped by. There was a strange beauty to even the rough parts of the city, rather like broken glass. They still shone. She took a whiff of the artificially created breeze from the open-topped speeder. It smelled like fuel and grease and fried food and garbage. Not glamorous, but familiar.

“So, what kind of work do you do, Varia?”

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

Varia winced in sympathy pain as she watched Pidge set the bones of her leg. She put a hand on the woman's shoulder both to comfort and hold her steady as the speeder merged back into the traffic. When everything was back in it's place, Varia gave Pidge's shoulder a reassuring squeeze before pulling her hand away. She turned her attention to R3, observing the way the lights blinked under his head dome as his droid brain processed, whatever it was processing.

Varia looked back up at teal Twi'lek as she began to speak again. "Well, 'by day' I haul different products around the Galaxy, just whatever I get my hands on." Her eyes narrowed, looking at the driver droid suspiciously. She continued with a lowered voice, still loud enough to be heard over the whipping wind. "But I also make some extra credits getting information for people, mostly with my slicing skills."

She gave Pidge a curious look. "What about you? You mentioned being a droid expert, and you said something about having customers. Do you have a droid shop?"

 

[Pidge Batana]

Pidge smirked at the woman’s words. A fellow slicer. Or rather ’restricted information gatherer‘. As a team, who knew what they could get into... planetary records, polls, markets, the list was endless. “By day...” she started, poking light fun at Varia, “I run a tech business, mostly modded tech. I also do some ‘under the table tech deals’, but my specialty is in fact shared with yours.“ She slid a computer spike smoothly out of her vest. “I’m a rather nosy person, so I like to know sensitive things about important people. No shame in curiosity, right? However, I’ve been finding these slicing jobs are getting harder to come by, have you? The rangers are cracking down. ‘Maintaining security’ and all that nonsense.“

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

When Pidge pulled out her computer spike, Varia couldn't keep the smile off of her face. She pushed the right sleeve of her jacket up to her elbow. Underneath was a black leather vambrace that shined under the passing lights. Her left hand pressed a button hidden under the leather and a computer spike of her own speared out over the back of her hand. Another press with her finger and the spike retreated back into her vambrace. "Honestly my obsession started because I was nosy too, but it was just because I wanted to know about the latest starship designs. When I figured out how much that information was worth though... Well I couldn't say no to that kind of money, could I?" Varia shot Pidge a grin before turning a bit more serious.

"But I know what you mean. I used to just go pick up whatever info I wanted and I could usually find a buyer somewhere. Nowadays it's almost impossible to find open contracts."

 

[Pidge Batana]

The speeder pulled up to a ledge and Pidge could feel the familiar vibrations from the loud music in the cantina just ahead of them. The double doors slid open and immediately, the overwhelming light displays, smells of delicious food, and jazzy music took hold. Pidge bopped her shoulders to the beat as she walked over to a booth. She inhaled a bit of the fluorescent pink gas from a tube attached to the Micagen distributor on the wall. The familiar warm, tingly feeling relaxed her. She had to be careful or she’d start hallucinating. “I may have a job for both of us, if you like risk. You see, the sector rangers have valuable information in their databanks. They have everyone’s profile. I need to uh... modify mine a bit. Once we’re in, you can find out whatever you want. Of course, it would take some planning.“

 

[Varia Shinyuza]

Varia and R3 followed closely behind Pidge, both of them looking around at the chromatic surroundings. She had been to cantinas before, and this wouldn't come close to the seediest one she had stepped foot in, but that didn't mean much against a life sequestered aboard starships. So many strangers in such close proximity put Varia on edge. She sat opposite Pidge in the booth, still looking cautiously around at the many faces. The mention of sector rangers databanks managed to capture Varia's attention however. She thought about what that kind of information meant. Could this be another step to find her sister? She wasn't sure they would know much more than she did already. Still, if there wasn't anything new on that front, there would probably something she could use as a bargaining chip.

Varia took a calming breath, settling the racing thoughts. She studied Pidge's face for a few moments before leaning back in her seat. "If you really think we can pull this off, then I'm in." Varia shook her head, smiling to herself. "This is crazy though."

"But." She looked back up at Pidge, patting her hands on the table. "I believe you promised me a drink?"