Chapter 2: Forges of Ithyari

[Mara 29]

Once he reached the pilots' lounge, Kaden found a comfortable couch to sit on before opening up his pack to get his datapad. He scrolled through to his latest runs in the sims and began reviewing them.

Meanwhile, Artie slowly buzzed and hummed to himself while jacked into a computer socket, accessing some more game cheats for his dejarik software.

[Princess 35]

Nima blushed as she stood. "Let's get you onto a massage table and I'll try to work that knot out of your leg and then we'll head on down to the gym." She brushed past Nat on her way out of the office

[Chickenman 9]

"That's what I wanted to talk about it. Is she going to be a problem?"

[Rogue 4]

Nat watched her leave, reaching a hand up to tame his lekku. Maybe it wasn't the drugs affecting me on the Interdictor...

He smirked at that thought, shaking his head as he followed after her.

***

"I hope not sir." Layla told him. She better not be...I don't know what's up with her today... "I really appreciate your offer to bring her here. She'll be much safer here than walking around on Coruscant."

[Radioactive Isotope 29]

"I think I'll hit the sims again," Atuarre said. "Anyone who wishes is welcome to join me."

[Ayingel 24]

Satisfied with the room she was given, Szen changed out of her uniform into some less restricting clothing. A quick check over of herself in the 'fresher and she was heading out into the base to see what else -and possibly, who else- she would find. She stayed mostly around the living area at first, occasionally looking in open doors just to see who was there.

[Andy 60]

"Gym?" Aston looked back at her and gestured at his skinniness, "do I look like I use the gym?"

"Sorry..."

"I'm kidding," Aston grinned, "back towards the docking bay, but take a left before you get there and you can't miss it. It's across the corridor from the sims."

[Ender 8]

Jaim stood up after Layla and Tak left, and stretched. "Think I'll go to the blaster range, see if they've got any new dummies up. Ta ta."

With that, Jaim tapped a salute to the remaining squadmates and walked out of the cafeteria.

[Chickenman 9]

"Okay. To tell you the truth, the only way I was able to get permission to keep her here is because I'm on Admiral Besav's good side since the capture of the Immobilizer. Basically, what I want to say is, this is a top secret military base, and if she doesn't behave, I'm going to have to kick her out." He paused. "In fact, why don't you comm her and tell her to come over here."

[Drake 53]

After his shower, Tak got dressed and made his way to the hangar.

Once there, he walked over to his X-Wing. His astromech, Sixxa, was there touching up some minor blaster scoring that the Defense Force mechanics didn't bother patching up when they were back at headquarters.

"Good work, little buddy," Tak said to the droid. "I want it squeaky clean by lunch."

Sixxa rotated his dome toward Tak and gave him a confidant toodle followed by a questioning bleep.

"Yeah, they just arrived about an hour ago. Szen, our new pilot, is still a little stand-offish. Not surprising, really. She had no idea the kind of people the NRDF was throwing her in with."

The astromech gave him the equivelant of a remorseful sigh.

"We're not that bad!" Tak laughed and added, "Most of the time...."

He climbed the ladder up to the cockpit. He didn't bother getting in, he was just there to give the fighter his daily once-over. When nothing was amiss, he began to climb back down, stopping for a moment to run his hand over the black designs he had painted on just below the cockpit. Nine little images of TIE fighters, for those he destroyed during their first mission. He wondered briefly if a tiny representation of Atzena's fighter donned the hull of some Imperial's fighter.

He supposed not, as he climbed down. Imps were stubborn when it came to order and little X-Wing paintings probably wouldn't fly.

Upon completing a quick circle-check around the fighter, he patted Sixxa on his dome. "Well that's it for me. Have fun with that scoring, little buddy."

Sixxa tweedled a farewell and returned to work. Tak was turning to leave the hangar when he spotted someone ducking in between a pair of fighters across from his. Takeshi made it look like he was doing further inspections on his X-Wing while keeping one eye on the mysterious person.

After a moment, he recognized the hawkish face of Sadro Rath, one of the Lieutenants of the Flying Mynocks. What he was doing around the Revenant X-Wings was hardly a mystery to Tak. Ever since Layla and the ladies had pulled that little prank which made the Mynock's urine turn blue, Rath had seemingly taken it upon himself to find some way to get back at them. More specifically, Layla.

This was what Sadro appeared to be doing while Tak observed him. He had found his way to Layla's X-Wing and was now hidden from view behind it. After a minute, he reappeared and left the hangar.

Tak waited another moment before making his way over to Layla's X-Wing. He looked around for any signs of tampering but found none. At last, he gave up the search.

He left the hangar, thinking that he would have to tell Layla about this later.

[Rogue 4]

Layla nodded. Oh boy is she going to get it if she doesn't start behaving... She picked up her comm, calling Sena and asking her to join them.

"Not that this is a good excuse, sir...but I think a lot of today's 'rebelling' is emerging from a need to keep everyone at a distance. Sena...she has a hard time trusting people, and there are aspects of this place that would remind her of Archaic."

[Rubezsia 0]

Sena got up and started heading over to the gym. About halfway there Layla called her to Captain Tunon's office.

Oh great, I'm getting Layla in trouble now!

Sena started towards the Captain's office. Once she got there she knocked on the door.

[Chickenman 9]

"Come in," called Aeric. The door opened and Sena took a seat.

"How have you been enjoying your stay, Sena?"

[Rubezsia 0]

Layla sent her a look that told her not to try anything funny.

Ugh, Yup I'm definatly in trouble.

"It's slightly better than I'd thought it would be, I miss my friends back home though." She slouched in her seat and started idly playing with her necklace.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric nodded, giving a genuine smile.

"I can imagine. Unfortunately though, those friends aren't wanted by bounty hunters, and you are. We've brought you here for your safety. Don't think this is a free ride, though. This is a top secret military base, and as such you're going to have to pull your own weight. Layla says you're handy with a hydrospanner, so I've got you working with the mechanics, keeping the X-Wings in top shape. Sounds reasonable?"

[Rubezsia 0]

Sena shrugged. "Sure, I guess." She smiled "This may actually be slightly interesting being here."

[Chickenman 9]

"Trust me, with this bunch of jokers, it will be." He smiled. "Thanks for your time Sena. Dismissed." He turned to Layla. "Stay."

[Rogue 4]

Layla nodded, and having half-risen from her chair sat back down. "Was there something else you needed me for, Captain?"

[Chickenman 9]

The door hissed shut behind Sena.

"You said she was your sister."

[Rogue 4]

"Why, you don't see the resemblance, sir?" Layla asked jokingly, her gray eyes dancing in amusement.

[Mara 29]

Kaden yawned, finishing with going through another mission on his datapad. Everything on there was pretty straightforward. Nothing amiss. All of his sim missions had seemed to blend into one another so much so that they almost all seemed the same program.

He really hoped something would be coming up, something new to keep his senses sharp. But for now he would try some strategy practice: playing a game with Artie.

"Artie, let's play some dejarik, okay? I need something else to do."

The little droid whistled sweetly, innocently as he rolled away from the computer socket.

Kaden glanced at him. "What were you doing?"

Artie beeped nonchalantly.

"Right... Okay, let's play."

They settled down for a nice game, and Kaden hoped he could last at least ten minutes against his droid before he was soundly defeated.

[Chickenman 9]

Aeric laughed. "Maybe in terms of personality. But she's human. Adopted?"

[Rubezsia 0]

Sena didn't feel like working out now. She wanted to go use the sims now.

Am I allowed to...?

She turned and sat down outside Aeric's office so she could ask when he was done with Layla.

[Rogue 4]

"How can you be so sure I'm not human?" she laughed. "A little makeup, some hair dye...I'm just kidding Captain. No uh...well Sena and I have known eachother for a long time...even before I joined Archaic. I guess you could say we could have been sister's in law..."

She shook her head. "Anyway, when life went downhill for her I was there to help her back up. She's a pain in the choobies sometimes, but she's got a good heart underneath. After her family abandoned her, I protected her...took her in. My parents consider her a daughter, and although the matter of actual adoption has never been brought up because of the sensitivity of the matter---she is family to us, and I think of her as a younger sister."

[Chickenman 9]

"Sister in law?" he grabbed a datapad and scrolled through it to Sena's file. "Sena Argos? As in Deign Argos? The one who tried to kill you?"