Olena remained still as she lay in the foliage, keeping her sights on the scouts in case they happened to see her or her comrades... But she was intent on letting them go. If they knew the rest of the rebels were around, they wouldn't have come to a stop in possible enemy terrain... As useful as the bikes would be, it wasn't worth risking bringing attention onto the others.
@majus @Elfie Nami bites her lip, to stop herself protesting. It isn’t right that Seri should have to do that – but at least she has an idea. “If a few of us are willing to take little jobs like that,” she says, “we might make enough for food and fuel until we can move on. But as long as we’re here, we’ll need a system to make sure…to make sure nobody’s left alone. Just for safety.” A little shiver goes through her at the thought, and she clutches her arms to her body, feeling the gnaw of the shame she’s so far managed to keep to herself. She came close to just disappearing here, with no way for anyone to find her – the thought of that happening to someone else…
@Elfie @lady-lux Jura nodded her head. "Well, if worse comes, we can always sell this junk~" She gave one of the consoles a pat. "We would all be able to fit into your ship?" She asked as she turned to Nami. Kaelaen hummed. "We could become pirates." She spoke softly, and the others could not tell if she was serious or not.
The trooper soon joined the rest. There was a pause, as Olena heard the engines start - then an unmistakable sound of speeders starting into full speed... then silence.
@lady-lux @majus Seri fidgets, still unsure of her place amidst the others, glancing around the cockpit. “I suppose… it’s worth seeing what everyone wants to do - if they want to stay here, or strike out on their own?” Her gaze drifts back to Nami, as though seeking approval. “Your ship is, well, yours of course…” Nervousness hitches up a notch or two, as she worries at the side of her neck with an uncertain hand. “Pirates? I mean, I can see the appeal. Though that’d run the risk of bringing the Empire down on us too. They’re about the only people I haven’t got on the wrong side of..” she chuckles weakly.
Olena waited a few moments longer to give the scout troopers time to make their exit, before sticking her head up to see for herself that they were gone. Presuming that none had remained behind for some reason, Olena whistled lowly for the others to break concealment and continue their trek towards their objective.
"Kh~" Kaelaen snorted. "I believe the Empire is quite busy repelling a bunch of rebel fanatics, too busy to worry about one ship." She stated with disregard.
Soon, the rest of the group joined her. "Why did we not take them down?" The man asked, irritated. "A few imps less to worry about." He spoke with accusation in his tone... anger.
@majus @Elfie “We – we could fit everyone, maybe…” Nami tilts her head to the side as she thinks it over. “My ship’s only really got room for eight people. Doubling up and using some of the cargo space…it wouldn’t be comfortable. But then there’s not much comfort on this ship either.” She glances around. “Getting rid of this ship might even be safer, anyway. In case anyone comes looking for Ma— f-for Thassco. I’m sure there’s someone out there he owed credits to, and we don’t need them tracking us down.” Not wanting to think about the pirates idea just yet, she presses on, thinking out loud. “And then – maybe we’d have enough for fuel and food to last until we find safe places for a few people. Get anyone who has a home to go to…back home.”
@lady-lux @majus Seri wilts a little at Kaelaen’s observation, though the other woman is right - and it’s a good thing she is. She feels foolish, skittishly assuming yet more enemies are just waiting to pounce. She stays quiet as Nami ponders, but notes the weight around the name Thassco, as well as the implication that something happened to him. Could it be that Nami, too, has figures from her past looming over her? Or has she fended them off - maybe even permanently? Every little scrap she learns of her Nautolan friend has her growing ever more curious. “Could we… maybe this is a stupid idea but, could we sell this ship? Even if we had to take a lower price - make a quick deal - that’d be credits we didn’t have before.” She pipes up, nervous, not wanting to disappoint the other women. “Or if we are leaving it, I suppose another option would be to salvage anything useful - parts, systems, that kind of thing.” She shifts uncomfortably remembering the last time she went looking for a scrap vendor. The snide Bothan and the job that she thought had gone so well. “When I was… where I was before, I did a little trading, in a sense. There might be a similar place here.”
@Elfie @lady-lux Jura shook her head. "While all of us might fit one ship, it's not made to carry soo many people. Three, no four times the capacity? The life support systems will not be able to support soo many beings." She leaned back. "Then we'll the ship in return ticket?" Kaelaen suggested, then paused. "Ah... Return to where?" "Well, we could just sell the ship and disband... Every woman for herself and all that." She winced saying that. "Not so sure about the chances of success for anyone to make it back safely." Kaelaen hummed.
Olena shook her head as Triset aired out his grievance. "What happens when one of us goes out on patrol and doesn't come back? We go looking for him, right? Well, the Imperials would do the same, except they have the manpower to send a lot more people through this area. We would be giving the enemy a clue where to look for the rest of our platoon." "I was willing to run that risk if we could catch that patrol with their pants down and grab their speeders, but the numbers evened out and one of us or the speeders would have gotten blasted. I'm not going to risk any of your lives in an even fight if I can help it. Now, are we good to go?"
"We could have moved the bodies - we do need all equipment we can get!" The man still protested. "Besides, it's three imperials less to worry about!" The big alien spoke in his language and the technician nodded. "That's right! They could find and surprise the base! Have you thought about that!" The snipper, kept quiet, as she looked around.
@majus @Elfie Nami bites her lip. It’s all to easy to imagine what would happen to them, left alone – while she got to fly away… No, surely that isn’t the choice to make. “All right, we need both ships for now,” she says. “But we’re not – we’re not out of options yet. Seri’s right, we have skills and knowledge we can use to make a few credits in the short term – maybe what we really need is a destination. Once we know where we’re trying to get to, we can figure out how much we need in fuel and food.” She looks down. “We just need to find a place where it is safe to let people go their own way. I don’t know where that is. Since I’ve been free, it’s just been me and my ship. But there’s more than twenty of us here. Someone might know of a planet that would give a few of us shelter…”
@majus @lady-lux Seri fidgets, her hands twisting in a futile stim to try and calm herself, even as the various ideas being thrown around make her want to scream. She nods along with Nami, but can’t quite muster the confidence or direction she seems to have. She tries her best, though. “I guess… maybe the place to start is on-station? Maybe a cantina or something - figure out where we are and what’s close, maybe get our hands on a star chart and plot where we’re going next. Along the way if there are any chances to get some credits, we can do that too?” She takes a breath, steadying herself. “We’ve got to get sorted before we can go anywhere, and we need to know where we’re going to get what we need. So maybe that’s how we start?” She gulps, glancing around at the others, her bright blue eyes lingering on Nami’s, “I owe you, pretty much everything. So I’ll do whatever it takes to help. Whatever you need, as long as you’ll have me.”
@Elfie @lady-lux Jura hummus. "But... Where? I mean, generally. New Republic space, Imperial Space - they both are at war. Hutt territories?" "Not Zygerian space." Kaelaen easily gives her opinion. "I think we can agree on that."
@majus @Elfie Nami nods. “Agreed, away from Zygerria. It doesn’t have to be anywhere special, just a neutral world we can reach, where we can work out our next steps.” She looks around at the others. “So if we don’t know of a place like that, we need to find out about one. Either from someone on this ship, or like Seri says, from someone out there on the station.” She tries to fight the fear she feels at the thought of out there. “Unless we have any other ideas – will we start asking questions?”
@majus @lady-lux “Neutral is good.” Seri agrees, trying to sound more hopeful than she feels. “Somewhere we can just, lay low, where we won’t be bothering anyone. If we’re all still together, I mean.” She chews her lip anxiously, trying to think of somewhere herself. “Most worlds that’re good for laying low - that I can think of - are Hutt worlds. Which doesn’t really work for us… maybe Ryloth? I think it’s independent now. But it does have a history with the Zygerrians.” She suspects she’s rambling, and quietens down, glancing sidelong at Nami. “I don’t know. But if we’re going to start asking, I’m coming with you. You were right earlier, we can’t have people out there alone.”
@Elfie @lady-lux Kaelaen nodded. "So we have a form of what we want to do." She raised her hand. "We want to go to some neutral planet - yet to be determined. We just need to find it in Galaxy in Chaos." "But we also need to take care food, credits, fuel resources-" Jura started counting. "Wait!" Kaelaen interrupted as she turned to Seri. "What about Zeltros?" She asked. "Isn't it a pleasure planet? Maybe we could hunker down there?"
@majus @lady-lux Kaelaen’s suggestion hits Seri like a slap to the face, her eyes widening. She takes a step back, not entirely why she feels such a terrible sense of dread at the thought of going home. Probably because it was never home? “I-I-I -“ she stammers, unable to help herself, unable to quite grasp the right words for a response. “Ah - I - I w-wouldn’t nuh-know much… y-yes, yes it’s a - a puh-pleasure world.” She claws for something to say, some tangible excuse to explain why the idea of going to Zeltros terrifies her. All she can see are the faces of her parents - or what she imagines they look like. She takes another step back, pressing against the cockpit wall, shrinking in on herself.
