Log:Knights of Ren: Alternative Hiring Practices

Knights of Ren: Alternative Hiring Practices

OOC Date: September 20, 2018
Location: Rodia
Participants: Knights of Ren: Kylo Ren as GM, Lioria Thrace, Oran Arcantael, Erisi, and Brand Zyrra

The ride to Rodia was probably a bit tense for the other Knights, as Kylo locked himself in the cockpit apart from them for the duration. Or maybe they preferred it that way; his company isn't quite pleasant and he's threatened to kill most of them at least once.

After the ship comes lurching out of hyperspace, and the shuttle nears the planet surface, the door to the cockpit zips open and the Supreme Leader emerges, looking sulky, like he doesn't really want to be here. "Rodia is a garden world. Luckily we won't be in the jungle. The ship is being detained on top of a mountain. The altitude is high." No detail on how high. "A small convent of explorers are onboard the ship. We believe one of them has a connection to the Force, not unlike yourselves. Unfortunately for them I've just inducted several new members to the Knights of Ren and we're full up." Glancing between them, he gives a nod. "Find the one who has the talent. Bring them to me. Prepare to land." With that, he ducks back into the cockpit, sealing the door and bringing the ship down to perch on the edge of a wide, flat area next to an old, beat-up freighter.

As the landing ramp opens up, a uniformed First Order officer approaches the bottom, flanked by a pair of stormtroopers, apparently the only official presence waiting to welcome the Knights. "Ah, good, we've got them sealed up in there waiting on you, as ordered," the officer greets them, a thin, proud smile stretching his thin, papery skin, hair combed back in a polished coif. "You must be Ren's disciples. Impressive! You must be very powerful. We are happy to let you take it from here, as the Supreme Leader commanded."

The area around the ships is rocky, with tufts of long, wavy grass, the oxygen in the air scarce in the extreme. The freighter looms large, significantly bigger than the shuttle, an old Barloz class medium freighter, and one of the stormtroopers is already busy letting down the boarding ramp.

It probably doesn't help that the other oldie in the group in the crimson armor is just as quiet. Lioria isn't really in the talking mood most missions. But if talked to she would respond. She gives a look to Kylo when he emerges from the cockpit and there's a nod of her helmed head, "Understood, Master Ren." the vocoded voice states. Then she looks to the others on board, "Do you have armor and things?" she asks. Then she stands as the landing is being down and when the ramp starts to open she takes a moment to look down at the officer flanked by Stormtroopers and she marches down to them, "Yes." she states in that emotionless tone. Then she's walking past him and towards the other ship. "Don't let anyone off unless it's us or I've given the order to." she tells the Stormtrooper that's dealing with the boarding ramp.

Oran Arcantael wasn't particularly companionable on the flight to Rodia; he spent the time reading a datapad and it was difficult to tell whether that's because the contents were so engrossing, or whether it was because he was afraid of what would happen if Kylo had to stick his head back and yell that he WILL turn this shuttle around. Either way, no loss, as anyone who's actually met Oran can probably confirm that Not Speaking is pretty much the ideal form of him.

Filing out with the others to receive instructions and the awe of the muggles, he's quiet until Lioria mentions equipment. "I have neither armor nor things," the erstwhile aristocrat replies. "But the acquisition of such isn't worth delay. My strength in any combat is obviously to die in a sufficiently distracting manner that the rest of you escape." He draws in a breath, lets it out, peering upwards at the sky, then looking at the freighter that is their target. "I also haven't the faintest idea how one senses 'our kind.'"

Snort-strangled-laugh. From Erisi. As soon as the 'You must be very powerful' comment was made, she forced herself to stifle a typical reaction behind a raised hand, a quick cough done mid-strangled laugh. The entire ride Erisi had no problem sitting in awkward companionable silence with the others. Occasional skirted glances to each member, downward casting of lashes as she'd look back to unremarkable hands to peel off skin around her nails and push back cuticles with her thumbs. Oran, it would seem, is in the same boat as Eri, without armor nor 'things', "Well at least we've got our brains ...but no, I've nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero." She muses softly, managing a wry smile as hands are tucked into the pockets of her coat as she steps off the ship, "I suspect it's going to be look for the dude who's hidden in a wall panel or something so .." A shrug as she glances to Liora, "We'll make it happen, I'm sure."

Another who had made the trip in relative silence, as is apparently the Knight of Ren way, is Brand Zyrra. Well... relative is a loose word. Where the others had lapsed into a brooding sort of silence, Brand's had been one of aggravation and impatience. Numerous sighs had split the silence of the seating area where the knights had been, accompanied by the harrumphs of discomfort as he shifted sides from one cheek to the other, allowing one buttock a rest on the hard metal surface he had claimed as his own.

There is a look of relief as they arrive, and the man had stood to follow the rest out of the ship to head off toward their mission.

The boarding ramp leads up into the belly of the freighter, and it's immediately apparent that the ship has seen extensive overhauls and customization to serve its role as an exploring craft rather than a trading vessel, and as the Knights walk in, they're flanked on either side by transparisteel-walled research chambers where various specimens are stored behind the glass. Exotic plants, ancient-looking artifacts, cans of dehydrated food, taxidermied creatures with fur, scales, feathers, and spines, all stare back from behind a thin, barely-visible layer, only seen in the form of their own reflections.

The lights are dim in the hallway, but the storage rooms are brightly illuminated, increasing the unsettling contrast between the two and it's not immediately clear where the crew might be hiding or how many of them there might be, at least until a voice on the intercom crackles into life. "There's nothing for you here, we don't have anything you want, just go away, please. Please, it's best for all of us if you leave us alone. Please," the voice pleads with what sounds like genuine earnestness. At the end of the hallway, the passage splits left and right, and a screen with control board is mounted on the wall right at the intersection.

Lioria doesn't blow up. Not like Kylo. The older woman gives a chuckle through that vocoded helm, "We'll have to get you some. I am sorry we've not made that a priority." she admits. "I have an extra set of this on the Starstream." she pats her chest. "But Stormtrooper armor and other armor is good to have as well." she tells them. "As for sensing...that's a bit more complicated. Come with me." she states as she heads up the boarding ramp into the ship. Her lightsaber is palmed, but not ignited yet. AND OH MY GOD ANCIENT ARTIFACTS! The Archaeologist wars with the Knight for a moment. She was on a mission.

When there is a voice that tries to stop her she shakes her head, "It will be in your best interest to move and to leave us to our search." the vocoded voice states. She wasn't a cold blooded killer. It was about lukewarm these days at least.

"Oh no, quite the contrary, you absolutely have something we want, or we wouldn't be wasting our time here," Oran sourly informs the voice over the coms as he wanders through the ship. He's breathing a little shallowly; the air is real thin up here. "If he doesn't want this person, it does beg the question why we can't just kill them all and go home. Wouldn't it be rather more efficient, compared to mucking about up here, scouring this egregiously /dingy/ vessel for -- OH." He perks right up! "Will you look at that. Brand, stand still next to this case for a moment won't you, sophistication may flow into you by osmosis. /This/ is a first century -- note it has seven strings, it wasn't until the fifth century you began to see nine strings -- hallikset made I /believe/ by the master Vovo Na, whose workmanship is unparalleled to this day." He touches his fingers briefly to the glass and thinks real hard about how bomb that hallikset is, but nothing happens, and his hand drops with a sigh. "Anyway, as I was saying, bombing the whole vessel into a crater would have solved this issue quickly."

Erisi doesn't bother engaging in talking with people, instead she lets her gaze scour the interior of the freighter as they step onto it, the young woman following Lioria and listening to the others. Spotting a console she will side step to it, pushing up the sleeves on her jacket and giving her hands a wiggle, "Okay sweet heart, time to spill your guts to momma." Hunching over she lets her tongue play in the corner edge of her mouth, a soft humming song dwindling in her throat, "Ooookay, wow, this fat lady spilled her guts quick .." Said over her shoulder to the others, "So, we have ..a crew of fifteen, or what was supposed to be ..Ten are dead, or flagged as --" She'll pause to listen to Oran, continuing on afterwards, "Dead ...and five living members of the crew left. Vislor Mastigar, male human, aged fifty two. Corrina Ka, Quarren lady, thirty seven years of age, Jope Ka, Quarren male thirty nine years old, Liran Ka, Quarren Male, eighteen years young, and Ettagar Apinea, Selkath Male, forty six years old." A quick shuffle of her feet, "I think those might be our people still left on here, and one of them is our sensitive." Looking over her shoulder now she'll look to Liora for guidance, "Want me to bring anything else up? This lady is wide open to me."

Making his way onto the ship with the others, Brand's stride slows slightly as the voice crackles over the ship comms to make it's request. His visage hardens slightly, even as his eyes roll and he goes back to looking for things of interest in the storage rooms. Breathing in a shallow fashion similar to Oran, Brand stops abruptly when the man speaks of class absorbing osmosis and then drones on about something that Brand likely has never even heard of. He looks toward the hallikset doubtfully as Oran educates him, then looks from the instrument to Oran in an alternating fashion for a few moments.

Finally he grunts, offers a shrugs and says, "Yeah. That's real interesting, Oran," in a voice that suggests he finds it anything but. A hand lifts and points across the way before he says, "Over there we find a few dead bodies. Looks like a Twi'lek aged approximately... twenty years. Then a pair of Togruta, three humans... even a few others. Quite the dead body pile. Probably the ship crew, yeah?"

Dootdootdoot...RO bumps into Erisi with a bit of a BB gracelessness or adorableness. It's hard to say with the black and silver droid that rolls up to her. "If you'll transfer things to my BB unit, please. We can go through things on the way back and see if there's anything in the files that we can use." she tells Erisi. Then Lioria takes a moment to breathe and then her head whips to the left passage, "There." she states. Then she's stalking that way. Because she was sure the Force wasn't lying to her at the moment.

The left passageway is dark and ominous, for a seemingly harmless old freighter, and the brightly-lit side chambers are not a feature here. The air is thin, suggesting that the crew is not pressurizing anything, which just makes sense, and the atmosphere has had ample time to equalize between the ship and the outdoors. When Lioria starts to head that way, it doesn't take very long before there's a bang as a door is forced open, followed shortly by a scream and the sounds of a struggle as an older male Quarren bursts out into the hallway, dragging with him a middle-aged Selkath. "Quiet!" the Quarren bellows, shoving the Selkath ahead of him to faceplant on the floor. "This is- this is who you want! He's the one! He's the one who told us it would be safe here, he- he's a spy! A criminal! Take him and go!" While the Selkath struggles to regain his footing, the Quarren looks between the Knights with desperate eyes. "Well what are you waiting for?!"

"Why are you fixating on corpses?!" Oran asks Brand, in tones of appalled disappointment. "It's just like you to focus on the fruits of violence instead of /culture/." As the other man starts walking away he issues a grave threat, "We are going to a MUSEUM," before alas, it's back to work. Down the corridor he goes, though he's letting Lioria, who has Armor And Things, take point. The passage erupts into the Selkath and Quarren's altercation. "Yes, yes, you make a very convincing argument," he assures the Quarren. "Jope Ka, is it?" He wasn't properly paying attention, and eyes Erisi for confirmation. "Kope Ja? Doesn't matter." Oran looks back to the aliens. "Excellent case. And yet, something about it seems.... fishy." He hmms, "That would've played better if you were Mon Cal."

It is indeed adorable. Looking down at the little droid Erisi's heart practically melts, "Of course ...oh my gosh, aren't you just the most bad assed little guy, huh?" Eri asks as she reaches into her pocket to draw out a cord, unraveling it, or trying to, the thing having knotted up in her coat pocket, "Always gotta be something to make me look bad in front of the cool kids .." Muttered to herself, hazel eyes narrowing as she pinches and tugs until the cord is unraveled. Then, and only then, does she plug in the cord to a port in the console, crouching down then to ask, "You okay if I plug you in?" And, assuming the BB says yes, she'll wait for it to choose a port and boop, in she plugs him. As everyone leaves the room to follow Liora the olive skinned woman will pause a moment, making a throaty noise, "All right, sorry little man, I gotta go play grown up." Rising up from the crouch she'll give a parting pat to the units head before she quickly strides off to catch up, fielding Oran's question as she appears in the doorway, "Uhh ..shoot. Uh. That one, the Quarren is ..Jope Ka, has to be, the other has to be Ettagar Apinea." Said with a quick point of a finger to either male, "Can we not just like, round 'em up and figure out who the heck is the one we're looking for then? We're still missing three, the human man, the Quarren woman and the young Quarren man ..Tie these guys up or something?" Asked with an effusive way around the downed man and the one throwing him under the speeder, "You can like, make Jope scream or something, broadcast it on the ships comms system, it'll draw /someone/ out, or all the rest .." A lick of her lips then as she ducks her gaze, deferring to Lioria, "Or whatever."

When they make their way into the creepy side passage, Brand draws the pistol from the holster at his hip, holding it loosely in his hand while they walk along. "You go to a museum," he comments over his shoulder toward Oran, smirking lightly before he questions, "Is that the kind of stuff that I can look forward to at one? Old instruments that I can't play and that you'll drool over?" That scream and other commotion, Brand brings up his blaster to point toward the one speaking. His brow knits in concentration, as he stares into the eyes of the Quarren, as if he were listening for something. The corner of his mouth twitches and the squeezes the trigger on his blaster, shooting the Quarren center mass in the stomach with a sudden and violent blast of red blaster fire. He growls and points the blaster then toward the Selkath and says, "He is lying. It's your turn."

"AAAAHHHHHCCCKKLlll," Jope Ka shrieks with a guttural, mouth-tentacle-y groan to cap it off as he stumbles back into the wall, sliding down it until his arse hits the floor, hands clapped tight over the wound as he starts to slowly bleed out. Quarren blood is stinky, and so is burnt Quarren. "You... you monsters, I hopth you- you burn in hell, you- you- you'll never..." He's rambling, and losing coherence as he goes, trailing off into a stream of disjointed syllables.

With shifty eyes, the Selkath, Ettagar, surveys the intruders, glancing back into the room he just came out of. "Listen, I- I never done nothin' to wrong you, you never done nothin' to wrong me, I'm a reasonable man, I told 'em when the TIE fighters forced us down that- that- that- we can make a deal here," and again his large, globular eyes dart towards that chamber. "No reason anyone else has to die here, I- I- please don't kill me. I know what you're here for." Lowering his voice, he points a finger into the room. "In there."

"Do. Not. Attack. Until I tell you to!" Lioria's anger flares as Brand just shoots someone without even finding out if that's the person they needed. Her lightsaber ignites in her hand and there's a look to Brand, "Secure him." she points to Ettagar. "None of us are going into that damn room. NONE of us. It's throwing off amazing amounts of don't go in there." she grits out. "Tell me what's in that room. Or I'm going to be extremely unhappy with you." she turns that lightsaber on Ettagar.

Oran's brows lift as Brand shoots the Quarren, though he doesn't seem particularly scandalized by it. "Hell is empty," he dryly informs the tentacle-headed alien who wants them to burn in hell, "All the devils are here." He is distracted, however, not really paying attention to either aquatic alien, instead he seems drawn towards the door like a moth to the flame, taking one step, a second... only to have his thoughts scatter like frightened birds when Lioria says NO. Oran stops without going in. "There's power in there. Of a sort."

"Woop." Up Erisi's hands go above her head reflexively, the woman having been on the wrong side of a blaster more than once, muscle memory kicking in. Her eyebrows go up as she steps towards Lio, only to step away then towards the door as Lio lights up her saber. Yep, this whole room is cray. As she nears the room she can feel a weird prickly zing across her chest and up into her neck and hairline, and as she steps away it lessens. So she begins to do a shuffle, away, closer, away, hands still above her head, brows creasing together, "Whoa, that's like, a /ton/ of static electricity in there or something ..or ..oh wait, we covered this. Force-ee." A look to the others says ..they probably sensed it too. She's just gonna enjoy that she even got a trickle her way.

"He's not," Brand replies flatly toward Lioria in the face of her anger, his eyes turning to meet her gaze with a slight shrug. "He was lying to us and trying to turn over this one, who also isn't what we came for. They are both loose ends that are trying to keep us from our goal," he says as he steps over toward the wounded alien and kicks the quarran over, exhaling sharply through his nostrils to clear out the stinky smell of blood and cooked quarran. Once he has fallen over, Brand places a boot on the side of the alien's neck and lifts up to apply pressure, blaster trained on the Selkath still. He nods toward Oran's words, jutting toward the door with his chin. "What we want is in there. I can feel the power as Oran said. But also danger," he rumbles, a steely edge to his voice.

When the lightsaber abruptly appears, the Selkath's large eyes crossing in the middle to stare at it, then the blaster, then the lightsaber, his hands balling into tight fists, the crisis of conscience clear on his face as his breath starts to break into quick, rapid pants, sweat beading up on his rough sharklike skin. "...ALRIGHT, damn it all, damn me... damn me for a weak old fool," he groans with a quiver in his voice, reaching for a concealed keypad next to the door and tapping a few buttons. Something audibly disarms, and at the same time a panel POPS open out of the floor, shifting itself away to the right as it recedes from view to reveal a pair of Quarren, scared and shivering.

"NO!" Corrina cries, putting her body over her child, weeping desperately. They'll need to drag her off and get the kid out from under her.

Lioria's gaze cannot be seen and thank fudge for that. Because Brand would just be staring at red right now. "I don't care." she states in that vocoded tone. "If you get killed or either of them die its not on you." she points out. There's a look to the Selkath as he cracks and then the panel opens, "Take him." she nods to that. Then there's a look to the two that are left in the room that aren't Knights. "We'll deal with this. Back to the ship with what we promised Master Ren." she tells them.

Oran blinks as a floor panel pops open, clearly having not quite expected that. "Oh!.... /oh/," he says in surprise and then mild disgust as the stowaways are revealed to be Quarren. Squid head people. Gross. So gross. Then he tsks, and shakes his head at the wailing mother. He is regarding her with exasperated contempt. "Stop. Be honest with yourself, you knew from the moment the TIEs showed up that this would end this way, these hysterics are a pathetic and unnecessary spectacle." Reaching down into the hatch, he proceeds to haul the mother out, wheezing in the thin air; she gets summarily squashed against the wall with arms pinned behind her. "Someone please tell me we're not being so imprudent as to leave all of these people alive? Have Commander Comb-over from the landing field or someone come in and mop up. And someone tell him to pick up that hallikset."

"I can rig the ship to pump exhaust into the ship and make it look like a life support malfunction." Erisi suggests as she slowly lowers her hands to her sides, hands tucking into her pockets, "Lack of oxygen and gas addling the brain can do crazy things to people ..son shoots his parents and massacres the crew ...Takes off. I can even mess with the ships logs to make it look like he took off in a shuttle or an escape pod." Lips thin together as she tries to remain casual in such a chaotic space, "The First Order gets a lot of bad press, might not be bad to do things on the downlow once in a while." A suggestion, "Or, shoot 'em all and we can get pancakes."

Brand reholsters his pistol, pushing off of the Quarran's neck with an aggravated force before he stoops down to roughly grab the kid by the upper arm and haul the child out of the hidden compartment. The cries and wails for it's mother don't seem to break through the cold features of the man as he lifts high enough that the child is forced to it's feet, or should it stumble will simply be dragged down the corridor by Brand as he offers a nod toward Lioria's instruction and makes with the child thieving.

With their kidnapped kid in tow, the Knights are able to make a quick exit back the way they came, that terminal yielding itself up to Erisi's maneuvers that leave a blank slate on the sands of time as far as culpability is concerned; a terrible tragedy, where the Quarren kid Liran Ka massacred his parents and most of the crew of an exploring expedition. Terrible. The shuttle is waiting to carry them back to Nar Shaddaa, with a separate area for prisoners (a small room with one of those great interrogation tables). The pilot doesn't even come back to check on them, but once everyone is aboard, the ship lifts off, blasting up towards the fringes of the atmosphere while the First Order officer and stormtroopers look on. "Well, they seemed quite nice," the uniformed man remarks to the other two. "Cleaning up the galaxy of these lesser lifeforms! Makes it worth getting up in the morning."

"Sir, yes sir!"