Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Mara 29]

Quietly finishes up his last ration meal, cleaning up the tin and sitting back to listen.

[Vergere 1]

Brier stood after a time, silently bowing her head to excuse herself from the conversation, and walked a small distance away, going through her bag she'd put down earlier, and putting an ear-sized reciever in her ear, dialed up a certain on-planet frequency and sat on the grass again to listen where it's a bit more quiet.

Edited October 1, 2007 by Vergere

[Mara 29]

Taking all his empty packaging, Kaden got up to dispose of them and moving away from the others. He felt a little tension building near Layla and decided to take that moment to find out what Artie wanted earlier when they were finishing up the tarps. He found the little green and black droid at the fall side of the clearing with his sensor disk out.

"Artie, I don't think you have to worry about anything. There are others in charge of security."

He blew an electronic raspberry but did slide his equipment back inside its dome.

Kaden crouched down beside him. "I don't know if there is any more power for you here. We have sparse supplies." He glanced around at the camp, noting Captain Tunon and Lt. Riamor talking quietly on the other side plus his squadron mates around the rations and the Intel woman off to a side. He turned back to Artie. "But you should be fine once we're back in the X-wing."

He sighed. "First we wait around in space. Now we wait around on ground..."

[Vergere 1]

Frustrated either by what she does or doesn't hear on the receiver, Brier groaned very softly and rubbed her temples, getting a headache as she listened.

[Mara 29]

Artie tootled, spinning his dome around to focus on Brier in the distance. Kaden furrowed his brow and turned to look where his droid was.

"You met her already, Artie. She's our Intel officer."

The droid gave a snort-beep.

"No, I don't think something is wrong." He glanced back over at her. "See? She's probably just listening to some new intelligence or something."

Artie twilled, but Kaden ignored him, voicing his thoughts. He lowered his voice. "Between you and me... I think there's more to her than the rest of them know."

Artie beeped shortly and turned around.

"No, really... I think there may be a reason she took this assignment instead of someone else. It makes me wonder..."

Kaden looked down and didn't see Artie.

"Artie? You were here a second ago..."

He finally found him: Artie was tooling through the clearing towards the Intel captain. Exacerbated, Kaden stood up and slowly followed his droid.

Upon reaching Brier, Artie trilled concernedly.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Princess 35]

Nima nodded. "It happened to me on my first mission too. I wanted to space myself. Almost blew mission secrecy. My wingman put a firing lock on me. Shook me back to reality."

[Vergere 1]

Brier glanced up in suprise at the droid, her face betraying her suprise. Her features softened slightly, and she gave a soft smile, never noticing Kaden, her back mostly to him. Her voice just as quiet, "Everything's okay." She tilted her head slightly as he gave a mournful trill. "No, don't worry about it. I'm just upset with the lack of information I'm getting."

Artie let out a string of chirps, trills, and whistles. Brier patiently heard him out, "I promise, I've got it under control. Now unless you can get my contacts to get their acts together, I'll continue to be frustrated. But that's nothing for you to worry about." She reached over to pat him reassuringly. "Trust me."

[Mara 29]

Artie whistled slowly, giving in and understanding. He had known plenty of unhelpful people before.

Kaden caught up to them just then. "Uh, sorry about that..."

[Vergere 1]

Brier laughed at Artie, but quieted as Kaden spoke, her features going emotionless again, not sure how to treat him. "It's no problem. We were having a nice discussion. It was refreshing. He's an interesting droid."

[Mara 29]

"Yes," his eyes flickered to Artie. "He is."

[Vergere 1]

Reading his body language, Brier shifted uncomfortably. "Is... something wrong, Mr. Staal?"

[Mara 29]

"No, everything's fine." He winced inwardly at being addressed so by her but didn't show it on the outside. "I was just seeing what Artie was up to."

Kaden walked up closer to Artie. "He seemed to think you were in trouble." He shrugged.

[Vergere 1]

She glanced down at Artie, her eyes softening slightly as she spoke. "He's a good read on emotion." She looked back up at Kaden. "Would you prefer I didn't speak to your droid?"

[Mara 29]

"Yeah, sometimes I think he's almost human himself..."

Thinking it might be a little while, he decided to sit down, and so he found a comfortable spot on the grass near his droid.

"No, he likes friends. Sometimes I think he has more than I do." He smiled.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Vergere 1]

She didn't answer immediately, thinking things through, and took her earpiece out of her ear instead acting like she wasn't giving them her full attention. Speaking slowly, her voice still soft, "Hasn't he rubbed off on you? Perhaps he could help you be more sociable." She shrugged uncomfortably, feeling like she was walking on shards of transparisteel around him.

[Mara 29]

Surprised that she was being so frank with him, he remained quiet a while, thinking things through. Artie focused on Kaden as well, waiting for his answer.

"He has helped, somewhat. Especially after I lost.. a close friend."

Force, what am I doing? She's Intel!

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Vergere 1]

She watched him carefully for a few long minutes, her features gentle. "How long has it been?" Her voice with that quiet softness again, after a pause, "Isn't it time to let go?"

[Mara 29]

"Just a few months ago." He left it at that, not willing to even consider letting go and forgetting it, at all.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Vergere 1]

She didn't answer for a long moment again, and then spoke so soft that no one around could hear, and that he just barely could, "Would she want you to throw your life away, only because she lost hers? Wouldn't she rather you enjoy what she no longer can?" Her currently ice-blue eyes were gentle and honest, and incredibly gentle for a trained Intel officer. It was if she really cared. But she also had a cautiousness about her, ready to spring away if things went horribly wrong.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Vergere

[Mara 29]

Kaden sighed and lowered his eyes. He's not sure why, but her words get to him. Maybe it was because he never had anyone else to talk to about everything besides Artie or maybe because she finally made him see what was holding him back all this time. He wanted to spit something back about how he wasn't throwing his life away, but he knew she was right. There was always a small part of him that wasn't letting him focus completely and utterly on anything he did.

Still looking at the ground, thinking, something comes to him. She said "she," and I never mentioned anything about who my friend was...

He moved his head back up, focusing his eyes on hers, saying nothing, revealing nothing.

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Vergere 1]

Still speaking so soft it was almost impossible to hear her, "I am not asking you to admit or deny anything, Mr. Staal. I'm just asking you to think about it." She glanced over at Artie, then up at the sky again, taking her intense ice-blue gaze off of him, knowing she made most people uncomfortable, and was trying to take away as many uncomfortable factors as she could.

[Mara 29]

"I am. You've given me a lot to think about." He softly admitted.

Artie broke in with a few tootles.

Kaden turned to his droid. "No, I don't think so, Artie...Not now..."

[Vergere 1]

She glanced at the droid again, before looking back to Kaden. "I'm not your enemy, Mr. Staal. I'm not here to get anyone in trouble. I'm here for the mission, nothing more. No alterior motives. And I might not be human, but I can still listen." She picked up her earpiece and looked at it, trying to decide if she wanted to try to search for more information again or not, feeling she wouldn't get much more conversation out of Kaden, and not feeling lucky enough to push her luck.

[Mara 29]

Artie gave another electronic snort.

He glanced at his droid, knowing what he was asking would be a huge step for him, so he remained quiet thinking about it and letting Brier do her work for a few moments. Kaden knew he wasn't ready to go the entire step forward and actually talk about the last moment he saw Tashi (even though he figured the public aspect was in his record), but there was something else he could do.

Regretting it, he listened to Artie and pulled the bag off his shoulder and opened it up, fumbling around inside nervously. Kaden pulled out a small holograph.

"Would you," he cleared his throat. "Would you like to see a holo?"

Edited October 2, 2007 by Mara

[Vergere 1]

She looked over, honestly suprised. Her voice still very soft, "If you would like to show me... Then yes."