Welcome to Gaia! ::

Freya nodded to the man. "Like, of course." she said to Luger. Giving a nod to Zell, she said, "Like, mead if they have it," before turning back to Luger.

"That totally sounds fair enough. And, while I'm not totally swimming in credits, I can totally give you a fair rate. In fact," she said, reaching for a small voucher, about ten thousand credits worth. Holding onto it, she said, "I'm also so willing to give you a little something up front, if you're totally on board,"

Freya gave Zell a pat on the shoulder. "Like, I'm supposed to be paying you," she whispered with a laugh.

"So, like, totally tell me about yourself?" Freya queried Luger, a look of interest on her face.

Deciding to leave this system Red just picks some random coordinates & heads out away from the ship.

"R4 have you found out anything yet about that saber?"

"Bip beep boop bip." The little droid replies.

"What? The saber belonged to a Jensaarai? Who the heck is that? Are you sure on thi....." "Beeep bip boop." R4 chirps out while interupting Red.

"Ok, ok R4 calm down ya tin can. We'll head out there & see what we can find. Set our course for the Suarbi system. Boy it's been awhile since I've been out in the Outer Rim."

Archaras sat in Locru's Central Saloon, safe among all the various underworld-types. He sipped some mediocre Lum, which despite its lack of quality, set a warm fire in his center. He smiled under his sash, when his datapad beeped.

He removed it from his belt as ICIS said, "Looks like Lynch paid us an extra 2000 Credits...Hazard pay more than likely. Well, 8,000 Credits have been added to your account...pretty lucrative haul."

Archaras nodded, but felt strangely uneasy. He began keeping more of a tab on the Cantina, drinking the entire scene with all of his senses. He continued with his posture of awareness until he saw them. Paired humans in suits timilar to those of the Rodian were walking through the bar, and the bartender gave a nod in his general direction. Archaras didn't even try to move. He awaited them serenely, following them with his eyes, letting them know that their intentions were known from the moment he'd seen them.

"Mr. Russ?" One of them queried.

Archaras nodded.

"Mr Lynch would like to have a word with you."

Archaras thought for a moment, then nodded again, and rose.

"This way," The other said, gesturing. He followed the first, the second behind him, no doubt ready to put a half dozen bolts into him at the slightest provocation. They strode through the rabble and into the back of the Cantina, where the led him to a second room.

The door slid open and the trio entered. It was poshly furnished, with rich accoutrements bespeaking of a monied patron. There was a real wooden fire crackling in the back, and situated in front of it directly in the center of the room, was a desk, which housed a human, who looked to be in his mid-forties, with gray hair spatted at his temples. Behind them there was a hulking Human that was at least 2.8 meters tall. Well, at least he looked human.

"I'm sorry Mr. Russ, but you must surrender your arms at this point. Security and all that," Said one of the humans. With a sigh, Archaras did so. He did not howevere, remove his gauntlets, or the hidden vibroblade in his boots. Both were perfectly concealed.

The man sitting at the desk stood and smiled, saying "Mr. Russ, it is a pleasure. Please be seated."

Archaras walked forward and took a seat in front of the desk without a word.

"I have not introduced myself and for that I apologize. My name is Roman Lynch. I own the concern which hired you during your last contract. I must say your work was exemplary, however further apologies are in order. My rivals attempted to...interfere with your transportation of my legal goods. Fear not however...they will be punished," He said, smiling richly at the last part. He had a deep voice, one that sent the room abuzz with resonations.

"Is that so?" Asked Archaras, simultaneously follwoing the movements of the other three beings in the room.

"Indeed. Anyway, I am here to present you with another business oppurtunity. Quite a major one. I can't tell you anything about it until you agree of course, but I can say the pay will be considerable. There is some violence involved however. The pay outways the risk, and such a pilot will always be useful in my organization," Lynch said, standing and walking from behind the desk, and looking at the Echani. His eyes promised riches.

Archaras appeared to mull the proposition over for a moment, despite having already made up his mind.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline your request," The Echani said, smiling at Lynch.

Lynch's own smile vanished, being replaced with a grimace.

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Archaras nodded, saying "I prefer to stay on the legal side of things...and not die in the process."

The Echani's smile disappeared at the end of his sentence, and his eyes turned to ice.

"A pity. I guess my assosciates will have to convince you then..." Said the Crime Lord, returning to his seat.

The hulking man behind the desk grinned, and a green claw clapped down hard on the Echani's shoulder.

"Watch out!" cried in his ear.

Trandoshan. He cursed himself for not surveiling the Cantina audience better.

He sighed gently, and then flashed into action. his hand clamped the claw down, and in the same motion kicked his chair back. The furniture slammed into the Alien, drawing a surprised gasp from it, and loosening it's grip for a moment, which Archaras turned into an arm bar, twisting the hardened arm to its limit. Then he launched a roundhouse to the creature's head, the inertia of which snapped the alien's arm, and the boot of which popped one of it's reptilian eyes like some kind of blister. It collapesed with a hiss, and Archaras psun through the kick to launch a spinning kick with his other leg at another advancing attacker.

The thud and sudden pain in his leg told him it was a Barabel. Their nautral armor and claws made for a difficult fight. The Barabel growled and through a poweful hook, which Archaras blocked, countering with a Leopard Punch to the Alien's throat. The armor there kept the punch from doing any real damage, but it cut off the flow of air for a second, enough time to give the Echani an opening to work him over with both hands. In seconds the Barabel was losing, and badly. Another instant, and Archaras had impaled it on its own claws.

The two Humans were drawing Blasters, and Lynch was up wide eyed, shouting "KILL HIM! Miggs! Get me out of here!"

Archaras dasged at the closer of the two, ducking his first pair of shots, and going into a roll to avoid his second. The roll ended up with Archaras diving up into the poor mans midsection, taking him down. He rose, and his elbow thudded into the thug's neck, crushing the windpipe. The Echani sprung off of the corpse as the other man got his bearings and shot at him. The Blasts kept his compatriot from sufffocating to death, but did little more.

Another combatanat, who Archaras recognized as one of the Rodian bouncers appeared through the door, and was beginning to draw a bead on the Echani as he entered, and as Archaras began sprinting. The Rodian was closer, so he covered the short distance quickly, grappbing the Alien at its wrist and yanking the arm up as it snapped off a shot, which flew into the ceiling. Spinning around the arm, and still keeping a grasp on it at the wrist, he sent his other arm into a flurry of attacks that left the Rodian leaving this world with a squeal.

Not bothering to remove the blaster from the dead alien's grip, he threw suqeezed off a half dozen shots at his sole remaining opponent. They thudded through him, but not before he got off an accurate shot. Archaras' free arm sprung up, a coherent oval of yellow light springing up in front of it, absorbing the blast. The man crumbled, and Archaras snapped off a trio of shots at the fleeing crimelord and his bodyguard. One of them clipped the hulking Miggs along his massive arm, eliciting a groan. Archaras tore the blaster from the Rodian and gave chase. He reached the open night of the street, to see a posh landspeeder fleeing.

He didn't even bother to shoot. It was almost assuredly armored.

"Oh Kark it all," He cursed under his breath.

"I think that is a good assessment," Said his AI. He walked into the bar again, deposited the blaster he'd liberated retrieved his gear, and dashed back out into the night...

((i'll delete that after you respond, this is just for both our benefit while we re-immerse ourselves in this after a few days of dropping it))

"It is my duty to help you, Iria. I will teach you everything that I know," her eyes grew slightly distant, "and perhaps more."

She sighed. "I've not used healing techniques for many years. It is certainly not at the forefront of Imperial teachings. But it is a noble thing to learn, and I dabbled in it a bit when I was first teaching myself. I will show you the techniques I used and give you more opportunities to use them. We shall ease off of combat and emphasize the more... benecifial force techniques. Does that sound good?"

Her young master nodded thoughtfully. "You sound more suited to the Jedi, at least the Jedi I read about in the archives. To be honest I felt closer to them, and despite my Imperial training, I still do. Being bound to the galactic government was the largest similarity between the Jedi of the Old Republic and the Imperial Knights."

She chuckled, "Of course, governments, especially in this galaxy, are as fleeting as drifsmoke." After a pause, she ventured a radical suggestion, "Perhaps you- well, perhaps we are better suited as Jedi," she smiled down at Iria, "not Imperial Knights. Your... mother made a similar conversion as well, I gathered. Both of us have been forced, in a way, into our alignment. Now we can choose what side to be on, rather than have it chosen for us."

As the shuttle lifted off, the threat appeared on every sensor of TIE pilots in the area. A few shots caused the shuttle to explode, as reports of the attempted flee reached Veers somewhat later. He dismissed the sheer improbability that the TIEs could destroy something like it so quickly, instead concentrating on the shuttle on the ground.

~~~

Ferno left no tracks behind him in the snow like many of his troopers. Heading past camp after camp of snowtroopers, he made his way inside the cavern. The nagging feeling of familiarity had long since disappeared. He knew he had found two birds with a single stone. Hiko may have been hiding, but Ferno believed the jedi would in fact come out in the open at his prescence.

For now, he made his way deeper into the temple, unassisted save for HM. The rest would have to stay behind.