Welcome to Gaia! ::

Fina looked to the krayt a bit wide-eyed through her mask, realizing how hard she was hit through the mask and feeling the pain from the attack earlier. She decided to ignore it... but found she didn't have to when she heard Vincent yell.... Damn... that sounds scary... She thought for a moment No wonder the Krayt stopped....

She then looked back down to the bag that was keeping her from using the force anymore...

After her anouncement about the shifting of the control of the GLF, Aurora and Sapphire preceded to get the ship ready to meet up with Admiral Pensil in the Peragus system.

"Make sure the shields are up to snuff, I don't want any damage to Freya's baby," she said to the small driod.

"Of course mistress."

"As soon as I get back we are taking off." She went inside and checked the Amatruse and Starsinger bank accounts' balances. Then she sent a coded message home to her parents telling them not to send any suuplies or new recruits to Abgredo Rae, but to keep them at Cloud City until further notice.

A few minutes later, she walked back out to the landing platform with Gorry and the last of the supplies.

"Let's go!"

Once they were done on Nal Hutta and paid handsomely for their work, the trio of corvettes shot back into space, the dying Trandoshan left for the slug, as they journeyed to their new course.

"Missssion?" Detre commanded.

"Kuat," the comm officer answered, reading from his data tables. "The Commander wants us to check on the shipments going in."

The noghri nodded. "Very well. Contact the other ssshipss. Relay the orders, and have them arrive at different times, through different docks at Kuat. We'll arrive first, at.... ssay 22:00. Ship #2 will arrive 4 hours later, at 00:00. The third ship will arrive five hours after that at 05:00. Feassible?"

The captain of the vessel nodded. "I wouldn't suggest anything less. We're off to Kuat." A flip of a lever later, and they were gone.

~

A few minutes before predicted, the Freedom arrived at the Kuat Orbital Facility, zooming through the busy skylanes, as it transmitted it's docking code to one of the closer docks.

It was immediately accepted, and the corvette pulled up along the station as a tube attached itself. Once the atmosphere was stabilized, Detre left the ship by himself, and met the awaiting attendee, a tall, skittish Caridan with an odd, egg-shaped body. He looked down at the biomechanical warrior. "You are the representative from the Loyalists?"

Detre nodded, his red eyes glowing through his hooded cloak. He didn't bother displaying his lethal claws or any of his highly illegal modifications. "Yess."

"This way then," the alien replied, leading the way through a series of hallways. They stopped when they reached the end. "Mr. Dor will see you now."

The noghri found it odd that he was meeting with a man. It wouldn't have surprised him elsewhere, but zKuat was a matriarchy, ruled by women. That a male was whom he was meeting with was astounding. "Thank you."

Detre went through the door and stopped at the desk. Mr. Dor, a Kuati human, was very bland and un-assuming. He wore a gray, standard uniform, with a name tag which simply read:

Kenet-Dor Kuat
Sector VII Administrator

The room they were in was equally unassuming. It was large, made of a mainly greenish metal, and decored sparingly. Strangely, though perhaps not here, the few decorations that were abound were models and framed schematics of starships, all of Kuati designs. Every now and then was a bust of a long-dead Kuati shipbuilder. Most prominent, and situated at the top of a shelf, was a hand-crafted model of the Executor, the first of the Galactic Empire's star dreadnaughts.

"Greetings, Mr. Detre..." the man answered from behind his desk. He was brown-haired and young, but he bore a few wrinkles and a noble persona. "Welcome to Kuat."

"I am here on business," the noghri answered. "For my superiors."

"Of course," the man nodded. "A noble of Kuat is always willing to listen to its allies."

"Good. How many sshipmentss have made it sso far?"

"All, the man answered. "My warehouses are almost filled with your fighters and corvettes. Hundreds, almost thousands of them, and I still manage to maintain everyday operations."

Detre nodded, seating himself in one of the guest chairs. "And your... rival?"

"Oh, the devil's still fine.." he answered, hispleasant tone replaced by a hateful one. "Her new toy is almost completed. Another four months will do it."

"We will be ready to engage before then. Have you acquired the codess for her warehoussess?"

Dor nodded. "It took some talking, but my cousin was willing to concede them over some whiskey. I've already had some of your shipments redirected there." He paused. "How will the operation proceed?"

The assasin answered. "Once all of the ships are in, our fleet will then engage a number of surrounding systems, in an effort to draw away the local defense fleets. it will not be easy, but a target will be presented that our prey will not be willing to ignore. At the same time, you will deliver us the codes to access your rival's shipyard, from whence we will have a second fleet warp in, and either destroy or capture the Pellaeon under construction. At that point, we will unleash all of our ships, and cause as much damage as possible."

Kuat nodded, although a bit pale. "That's, er, good to hear. "

"Good. Now I have a quesstion for you."

Dor nodded. "Ask away."

"How does a male of your species come to a position of power in Kuat," Detre asked. "It's odd, under a matriarchy."

"Odd indeed," Dor answered. "I am the only grandson of Kuat of Kuat. My mother, Kuat's favorite daughter, was heir to the industry, but an experimental shuttlecraft malfunctioned, and destroyed aeveryone witnessing the event, including all of Kuat's children. Now she is left with only her grandchildren, of which she shows me uncommon favor... for a Kuati."

Detre nodded. "And the rival?"

"My little cousin. Our mothers never got a long, and we dislike each other. She has since been aiming to usurp my unheardof power, and gain the favor of our grandmother. It is simply a matter of returning myself to her side, where I belong."

Iust stood at the edge of the ring holding his vibrodagger in a defensive stance waiting for the signal to begin the round. His opponent was a large Trandoshan wielding a vibroax who was too confident in his own meager ability. The Trandoshan had boasted earlier about how the battle would be over within the first fifteen seconds of the match. If only the poor fool knew how right he was.

The signal was given and the Trandoshan charged ax raised high, Iust just stood there. Closer and closer his opponent came. When they were within feet of each other the Trandoshan brought his ax down to cleave the assassin in two. Spinning to his right side to avoid the ax Iust brought the dagger up into the Trandoshan's exposed neck in one fluid motion. The Trandoshan had been right, the battle lasted only five seconds.

Round two of the Preliminaries found the "Ronin Kyo" facing off against a human shockboxer from the inner rim.
And it was something rather odd to witness.
The Shoxboxer was dancing about the arena, throwing taunts in Link's direction as the Jedi watched with a calm demeanor at the effort to draw him out.
"Whats a-matter there sword boy?" The man jibbed as he darted about the place. "Can't hit me? Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee! there's no way in hell, you'll ever touch me! C'mon! I dare ya! Try to swing those sticks at me! I'll-"
A sudden hard thwack erupted as in a burst of movement, Link exploded into action, charging straight at the boxer and smashing his bokken into his face.
As the boxer fell to the ground, Link sheathed his weapon.
"You are quick, but theres too much wasted movement in your style..."

It was a big step from being a starlet to managing a starlet. A big, boring step. Gigs to book, apperences to make, press to generate, all sorts of coordinating and paperwork, work work work work!
Sha'ra had about had it with the buisness end of showbuisness.

With a groan she plopped onto the overstuffed couch in the lounge of her star yacht, utterly exhausted with her job as the manager of Kieran Starlight.

Right now, "Kieran" was at a photoshoot for some music holozine Sha'ra had never subscribed to. And though it would probably have been a good idea for Sha'ra to be there with her, the Zeltron was more than ready to let her protege handle the work.

"She's a big girl." She muttered to herself as she snapped open a lum can. "Gonna inherit a planet sooner or later. Should learn to handle her own affairs too."
The Zeltron woman stretched and yawned, then snatched up the remote to the lounge's holovision set and flicked it on.

"Now then. Lets see what Ryloth has in the way of decent programing."
She flicked on the HV and began surfing for something to watch before settling on the closest thing to pornography she could find: Proffesional Pit Fighting.

"Oooo! Muscular guys beating each other up for money! That just spells quality entertainment!"
She took a swig of her lum and watched with interest as two human fighters faced off against one another in the ring, both ideal hunks of male-meat. It would almost be a shame to watch them de-prettify one another. Almost.

It seemed to be a live broadcast of the Nar Shaddaa Brawler Tournament, if the announcer could be believed.
A shame it was only the prelims. The main event would have been a gas to watch.

The first human, a shockboxer whom the announcer seemed to favor, was flitting about his opponent looking for an opening while his opponent, a stoic looking fellow armed with sticks, merely watched him.
The quicker man kept darting about, spewing taunts at his opponent in an effort to draw him into fighting when all of a sudden the other fighter smacked him to the canvas in a burst of movement Sha'ra had a hard time following.
And just like that the match was over.

"What a gyp." She muttered as the refdroids went to examine the prone man. "The least you could have done was toyed with him a little before you kicked his a**! I mean, I'm trying to be entertained here!"

The announcer began rambling stuff about how lousy that match had been, a sentiment Sha'ra wholeheartedly agreed with. The announcer cut out something said by the victor as he was looking over his opponent, something most people might not have cared to know. But as with most of her race, Sha'ra could read lips just as well as she could hear, especially when he words spoken were in a common language.

" 'You are quick, but theres too much wasted movement in your style.' " she repeated in an aproximation of what she thought the man must have sounded like. "Guy thinks he's a Guru. Cocky barve. Though with definition like that, he could show me that stick of his anytime."
She eyed the man's form with an apprasing glance and chuckled to herself. Taking a drink from her can of lum, she wondered why she was feeling a sense of deja vu.

Mid-chug it hit her.
She spat out the lum in shocked realization and she leaned forward in her seat to stare closer at the screen.

The height, the eyes, the using of swordlike sticks, the voice-even what he said was familiar to her.
"Its Talib!!!" She screeched exitedly, reconizing Link. "Talib's in the Nar Shaddaa Kombat!!" She stared at the image again and laughed. "And he's ripped!! It looks like he's been benchpressing Starships!! I gotta tell Leida about this!!"

There was a pause as she suddenly glanced over at the comlink on the table near her. She smiled deviously. "But first I need to place some bets...."

Fina had merely moved with being pushed off toward Vincent. Looking back at Alex, she thought maybe she'd give him reason to get a mechanical appendage later when she got her lightsaber back. Then pushed the thought aside....

She looked back toward Vincent through her mask. "How did you get ahold of those 3 things...." She asked.

Jaden smiled, he could here the beasts suffering, it's mind trying to get the body to get is back up, but this time it would be a struggle. He took this chance to dig deeper into the mind of the beast, and incouraging more for the mind to tshut down, and slowly lose it's functions, whihc would lead to it's ultimate death. Jaden smiled, I can't wait to see the face of the witch after she claims she killed the best all on her own.